Small Texas School Districts’ Response to State Funding Reductions

Abstract

In response to a challenging state economy, the Texas Legislature implemented the Regular Program Adjustment Factor (RPAF) in 2011, effectively reducing state funding to all Texas school districts. This mixed methods study reveals the effect of the RPAF on a sample of the smallest Texas school districts and their response to decreased state funding – inclusive of reducing staff, implementing tax rollback and bond elections, and securing revenue from other, non-traditional, financing sources, which ultimately served as the largest revenue enhancement – 97 percent of which was comprised of the issuance of capital-related debt.