Robin Hood, Where Art Thou?
HoustonChronicle.com - Poll: More Texans side with Robin Hood plan
After all these years, Ann Richards had it right the first time!
"Robin Hood" may be the bane of some of the state's wealthiest school districts, but a majority of Texans agree with the financing system that requires property-rich districts to share their money with property-poor districts, according to a new poll.The 58 percent support for Robin Hood is the highest recorded by The Scripps Howard Texas Poll since the question was asked in the fall of 2002, and was an 8 percentage point increase since last October.
Ya never know what you had till it's gone, I suppose. But for every complaint registered at the school finance mechanism, there was but a mere microscopic percentage of that number that were actually seeing tax dollars go elsewhere. Perhaps that calculus finally registers a bit as many more schools now wonder where on earth new money is going to come from.
Amen.
In the Dallas area, the schools that holler the most about "Robin Hood" are the ones that just happen to spend the most per student in the area, like Coppell. Yet, strangely enough, they have one of the best school districts in the area. Imagine if the wealthiest school districts have a hard time with the loss of revenues, how hard it is for those districts that don't have the proverbial pot to piss in. And I say living in a district that has a very good school system and sends out tax money to other districts.
You don't like property taxes? Fine. Let's have a state income tax and rework this nonsense of taxing people based on money that they don't have.