Burnt Orange Report

Scott Hochberg: A Profile in Courage

By Andrew Dobbs

I'll never forget the first day I ever worked in the Texas Capitol. I was an intern for State Representative Jim McReynolds (D-Lufkin) and I first met him when I went to lunch at the Capitol Grille with his legislative aide. As we ate, Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Democrat out of Houston, came to join us. Hochberg is an expert in school finance and as he and Jim talked about the problems facing Texas schools it quickly dawned on me that this chit chat wasn't just some idle banter- that these men actually had a say in how our school finance worked. It was then that the real power of politics became apparent to me- the power to actually do something about the things everyone else just talks about.

Well, Hochberg had a masterful op ed piece in Saturday's Houston Chronicle discussing the ins and outs of school finance. The piece is remarkable because Hochberg manages to do something very rare in politics- to put aside all of the demagoguery and conventional wisdom and sloganeering and cut right to the facts of the matter. Hochberg isn't liberal or conservative in this piece, he's honest with Texas taxpayers as to what challenges face us right now:

What started with bold pronouncements to “drive a stake through the heart” of the “Robin Hood” system of public school finance in Texas has deteriorated into closed-door discussions among state leaders about whether to do anything at all. That is because, despite all the rhetoric, Robin Hood is not the real problem with the way we finance our schools.

Robin Hood is a scapegoat for school district boundaries that separate large industrial plants from the schools their workers’ children attend, or that isolate million-dollar homes from schools educating the populations around them. Some district lines are accidents of history. Others were intentionally drawn to create property tax breaks for special interests. One way or another, it’s not Robin’s fault.

Robin Hood is also the scapegoat for the state not maintaining its share of school funding. Most of the growth in appraisals that homeowners have experienced has been used to reduce the state’s share of school funding, not to increase school budgets. Now schools need more money and taxpayers need relief, but there’s nothing left in state coffers. If your car stops running because you didn’t buy gas, don’t blame the car.

Robin Hood is even a convenient scapegoat for school districts. Robin Hood has been blamed so many times for district budget problems that many taxpayers believe their Houston Independent School District taxes are being sent to some other district.

They aren’t. HISD is one of the 889 districts that receives money from the state. Only 132 districts, with less than 12 percent of the state’s public school students, give up any money raised locally.

Sure, those 132 districts want to keep all the property taxes they raise. And the leadership in Austin desperately wants to let them do that, because it is great politics. But even after they make their Robin Hood payments, those districts have at least $600 more to spend on each comparable student than does HISD or any of the other districts receiving state funds. That’s already a huge advantage in hiring teachers, setting class sizes and offering programs.

Eliminate Robin Hood payments by those districts, as some have recommended, and their advantage, on average, goes up to $2,600 per student, at a cost to the rest of us of $1 billion per year. Some solution!

I'd quote more, but read the article yourself, he proposes a solution where the state would create a trust to put all the education financing money- local and state taxes- and divy it up per student, taking special circumstances into account, so that there is real equity with a more workable solution. It might just be the Democratic response we've been needing and it comes from the source we all knew it would- one of the smartest guys in the House.

The reason this is so brave is that Hochberg is not from a safe district by any means. His district is just about straight down the middle- it was about 51-49 in every statewide race and went for Ron Kirk, John Sharp and David Bernsen but also for Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, Carole Rylander and Michael Williams. Hochberg won his district with only 54% and he has tough opposition again this year. For him to come out and tell his constituents, most of whom have been whipped up into an anti-Robin Hood furor by dishonest politicians (on both sides of the aisle, I am wont to point out), that Robin Hood isn't really that bad and that the problem is that, frankly, we probably don't pay enough taxes for the schools we want is pretty gutsy. I tip my hat to Hochberg.

Why don't we all tip him a little- donate to his campaign and keep this voice of reason in the Texas House. Be sure to add $0.36 to the total so we can keep track of the BOR donations. Texas is lucky to have Scott Hochberg and let's keep him right where he's at.