An Efficacy Analysis of the Texas School Funding Formula with Particular Attention to English Language Learners

Abstract

Approximately 5.3 million students are classified as English language learners (ELLs) in elementary and secondary public schools across the United States. Concomitantly, of its 5.5 million students, the State of Texas enrolls the second largest population of K–12 English language learners1 nationally, with over 800,000 students—15% of the U.S. population of ELL students—approximately 17% of Texas’ K–12 population (Flores, Batalova, and Fix 2012). At the same time, among school districts with the largest number of students classified as ELLs, Texas superintendents manage four (i.e., Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston) of the top 20 districts in the country (Pandya, Batalova, and McHugh 2011). And, similar to other states in the Southwest (e.g. Arizona, New Mexico, or Nevada), the overwhelming majority of students receiving ELL services in Texas are Spanish speakers. Within this context, the general purpose of this article is to extend the examination of previous efficacy analyses of Texas’ education finance system (Rolle, Torres, and Eason 2010; Rolle and Wood 2012) by paying particular attention to the ability of the Texas Foundation School Program (FSP) to generate revenue to support ELL educational activities. Specifically, this article will examine the efficacy of formula components within the Texas funding mechanism—that is, how individual components within the Texas FSP act as significant predictors of combined state and local revenue. In addition, in order to focus specifically on the varying concentrations of students defined as ELLs, this article also will examine the efficacy of individual components within the Texas funding mechanism for five sub-groups of districts—stratified by percentage of students defined as ELLs quintiles—