Texas+School+Finance-Developing+a+Position+Paper+after+Comparing+and+Analyzing+District+Snapshots

Economically Disadvantaged Students District 1- 93.3% District 2- 20.7%  Total Refined ADA Adjusted for Decline District 1- $3,893.754 District 2- $4,032.937  Weighted ADA (WADA) District 1- $5555.815 District 2- $4794.076  There is a very significant difference between the two school districts being looked at this week. District 1 has an economically disadvantaged population of 93.3% while District 2 has a population totaling 20.7%. As would be expected from looking at those numbers, District 2 has a larger total refined ADA adjusted for decline at $4032.937 while District 1’s figure is $3,893.754. When looking at WADA, however, the numbers flip, with District 2 having $4794.076 compared to District 1’s $5555.815. So why does the district with the smaller ADA have a larger WADA? In the state of Texas, the education funding system is designed to make sure this is the case.  Looking deeper at the statistics you’re able to see how the WADA for district 1 is over $800 more per student than it is in district 2. The bilingual population in District 1 is at 41% as compared to a nearly non-existent 2 % in district 2. Additionally, the gap between LEP populations is even more significant, with district 1 having a population of 48% as compared to the same 2% in district 2. These two figures, along with the economically disadvantaged numbers shown before, are prime examples of populations of students needing additional educational help. The WADA formula is constructed in a manner so that funding will be provided to properly educate those students by providing additional teachers, paraprofessionals, and materials in those school districts that otherwise could not be afforded.  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In this case, the funding formula constructed for the state of Texas has successfully allowed for a poorer, more diverse school district to receive the funding it needs to educate a more challenging population of students. The fact that additional materials and teachers will be needed to teach these students is taken care of by the additional funding provided in WADA. The merits of this system, as it is very likely some of the funds raised in district 2 (chapter 41 school) were sent to a district similar to district 1 (chapter 42 school) through recapture, can be debated, but the current formula was successful in its goal of providing more funding to district 1.