School News

Christian Schools – 12% growth in 2021, 15% Growth Expected in 2022, Homeschooling Tripled in Past 3 Years

You want a Christian School for your child?  Expect a waitlist to enroll.  Homeschooling – unprecedented growth as well.  Some 16.1% of all Black children are now homeschooled.   It's happening in the city.  It's happening in the suburbs.  It's happening in small towns.  Parents are opting for reading, writing, arithmetic – and moral and spiritual values.   Over 35,000 North Texas children have been pulled from public schools in the past three years going to Christian schools or homeschooling.  And this phenomena may accelerate.

Some 750 attendees are expected in March to the Christian Schools Conference in San Diego.  One of the hosts, Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), state that the growth of faith-based schools in the United States is unprecedented.    One of the reasons is that over 90% of Christian schools remained in-person open over the past two years.  Consequently, student testing and academic excellence continued.  The other reason of course is the parent's belief that the religious schools help provide the moral and spiritual compass for their children.  Based on April 2020 statistics, some 11% of all students in the United States are now homeschooled, up from 3.3% some four years ago.   In addition, approximately 11% of all students now attend either Catholic or Evangelical Protestant schools – a huge increase particularly in the Evangelical schools.

• Dr Susan Berry, University of Minnesota (excerpts)

SOURCE: Estimates from Texas Education Agency

• Dallas Morning News, July 4, 2018 (excerpts)

  *School districts with relatively low enrollment (below 1,500 students)

Coppell and Highland Park Pay the Most Per Capita

Property taxes continue to rise, but increasingly for taxpayers in North Texas, those dollars aren't going to local school districts.  According to estimates from the Texas Education Agency for the 2018-19 school year, 25 D-FW school districts are expected to surrender $539 million back to the state through recapture, the mechanism designed to better balance school funding between "property-rich" and "property-poor" districts.  Statewide, the TEA estimates that 217 school districts will be subject to recapture for the upcoming school year, with $2.69 billion of local property taxes siphoned back to the state.  

In the North Texas area, Coppell and Highland Park school districts send the most to the state per capita, both classified as "property-rich" districts to help pay for the "property-poor" districts around the state, mostly along the Texas border with Mexico.   Interestingly, Frisco ISD has not been classified as a "property-rich" district but that may change as early as next year, in which then millions of tax dollars will be required to be sent to the state.  This will be a financial dilemma for Frisco since the school district has been unable to get voter approval for higher taxes.