March 16th, 2009 by Reed Allmand 
There’s an interesting article at USA Today about the affects of the foreclosures crisis on school district funding nationwide.
The article said:
Census data show the districts’ education budgets also are especially reliant on local property tax revenue, which is likely to slide at a time when thousands of residents in the districts are losing their homes and falling off the property tax rolls.
As foreclosures rise, property tax revenue declines significantly. And for school districts such as those in Texas, that rely heavily on property taxes for funding the foreclosure crisis is a heavy blow. Property taxes account for 50 – 75 percent Texas school districts’ budgets. The property tax decline caused by foreclosures has caused Texas school districts’ to experience budget shortfalls, job losses and delayed plans for expansion. Texas’ schools are on the losing end of this foreclosure crisis. With a property tax base in decline Texas could find itself struggling to properly fund education which could cause some parents to pull their children out of the system. And because funding is based on the number of pupils in the school district a decline in the number of students in Texas’ schools could further shrink school funding. A vicious cycle that we can begin to stop by curbing the number of foreclosures in Texas.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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