Austin ISD - Announcement: What Is Recapture?

Press release from Austin ISD - Announcement:

February 24, 2022

By Eduardo Villa

You’ve read the headlines: Austin ISD paid the most in recapture, more than any other Texas district. But what does that mean? Here is an explainer. 

Level set: Let’s go back to 1993. Texas legislature passed a funding plan to require school districts with higher property wealth to pay surplus tax revenue to the state to distribute to property-poor school districts.

Why it matters: The goal is to provide equitable school funding to school districts with lower property values. The plan guarantees school districts a certain amount of funding to meet each student's educational needs.

Currently, large urban school districts like Austin ISD are paying more because the local economy is booming.

Yes, but: The state is recapturing much more money than it needs. In the last two years, it recaptured an additional $1.4 billion that it did not allocate to schools and did not return to taxpayers, according to a report from Texas School Coalition.

By the numbers: Austin ISD paid $710,604,433 in recapture this school year – that’s almost half of the district's annual budget of $1.7 billion. Yet, a majority (51.9%) of the district’s population is considered economically disadvantaged.

The big picture: Sending the largest recapture payment in Texas is affecting our budget. 

This press release was produced by Austin ISD - Announcement. The views expressed here are the author’s own.