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Friday, October 24, 1997

Panhandle district takes on state over 'Robin Hood' payments

MIAMI, Texas (AP) -- A rural Panhandle school district has sued the Texas Education Agency, claiming its exemplary accreditation status absolves it from paying up under "Robin Hood" provisions.

The Miami Independent School District's lawsuit, which also names Education Commissioner Mike Moses, cites a section of the Education Code that exempts districts rated as "exemplary" from some requirements of the code.

"Chapter 41 -- wealth -- is not listed as an exemption, so we claimed exemption from Chapter 41 as an exemplary district," Superintendent Danny Cochran said. Chapter 41 is the so-called "Robin Hood" financing provision that forces property-rich districts to distribute money to poorer schools.

Miami ISD filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Travis County.

Districts receive TEA accreditation based on standardized test scores, dropout percentages and other factors. Only 64 of 1,043 accredited districts qualified this year as exemplary, the TEA's highest rating.

Miami ISD objects to sending $1.2 million, almost half its annual budget, to Austin for redistribution. The first installment would be due in February.

In a letter earlier this month, Moses notified the district that the TEA could begin attaching Miami ISD's taxable property to the rolls of districts considered less wealthy.

"The provision they cite would not require them to have elections for school board members, either. Can they not elect their school board?" said TEA chief counsel David Anderson. "The Legislature clearly meant for them to exempt programmatic items."

District officials met with representatives from the TEA and attorney general's office Wednesday to discuss the dispute. Miami ISD wants to deposit the disputed tax money in the registry of the court, though the state hasn't decided whether to agree with the proposal.

Both sides said they want to resolve the issue quickly.

"We're trying to figure out if there's a way to cleanly litigate this issue without raising all the other issues involved in Chapter 41," Anderson said. "That does not mean we are not going to enforce Chapter 41."

Ironically, Miami's refusal to comply with the school finance system could result in a lowering of its accreditation status from exemplary to acceptable, Anderson said.

Dean said the core issues of his 24-page lawsuit were not discussed at the meeting Wednesday. However, a TEA spokesman said the claim is off-base.

"Clearly, the Chapter 41 provision applies to all school districts that have a wealth per student ratio of $280,000 or above," he said. "Excellence exemptions don't relate to school finance. Those are in separate sections of the law."

Miami is about 60 miles northeast of Amarillo.