The Robin Hood Act

Paper Summary:

The paper relates how beginning in the 1970s, citizens in poor school districts filed legal challenges to Texas' public education financing system, arguing that relying on property taxes for school funding gave wealthier districts an unfair advantage in educating their children. The Robin Hood Act was created, therefore, to distribute property taxes from wealthy districts to the poor districts. The paper reveals that the Act has succeeded in bringing the property wealth of wealthy districts down but has had less success in bringing the wealth of poor districts up. The paper discusses how the many complaints end in pledges to do away with the system. Nevertheless, political, economic and social forces in Texas make the death of Robin Hood not very feasible, at least in the short-term.

From the Paper:

"As a citizen and Texas homeowner, I am against the Robin Hood Act. The Act has resulted in my property taxes increasing without offering my children the benefits of those increases. The increases, as well as part of the base property taxes, are in use outside of my area and are in use in other school districts throughout the State."
"I think the Robin Hood Act is an ineffective way to fund schools because under the plan, local property taxes are the primary basis of funds for the 1,036 Texas school districts with the intention of levying a property tax. In 1999-2000, local taxes made up an additional 50 percent of school district revenues. The significant variation in school districts' taxable property results in a large gap between low-wealth and high-wealth school districts' ability to raise local funds for financing educational costs."

Sample of Sources Used:

• John Michael Bodi, Educational Equity in Texas: A Historical Case Study of the Policymakers Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 2005 p89.
• Lyndon B. Johnson a Decade of Change: Public Education Reform in Texas. Austin School of Public Affairs, 2005 p44
• James F. Veninga and Catherine Williams, eds. Preparing for Texas in the 21st Century: Building a Future for the Children of Texas. 2004 p60.

More papers on The Robin Hood Act:

• Analytical Essay # 118948 : "The Greatest Happiness Principle and Robin Hood"
• Research Paper # 95137 : "Robin Hood Case Study"
• Essay # 53736 : "Robin Hood's" Maid Marian"

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