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Since February 15, 1876, the constitutional purpose of public schools in Texas has remained unchanged. It was understood then and remains unchanged to this day that a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to preserve the liberties and rights of the people. With that purpose in mind, the Texas Constitution requires the state legislature to suitably provide for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools. The logic is simple. The rights and freedoms of people are more likely to be preserved when people know enough to protect their rights and freedoms, and tax dollars are needed to support this. Since the Texas Constitution of 1876, what constitutes an efficient system of public free schools has been rightly debated, and in debates on public schools, may we never lose sight that a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to preserve the liberties and rights of the people.
Texas has a constitutional responsibility to support and maintain an efficient system of public free schools, and the word I focus on is efficient. When I think of efficiency, I think of things like miles per gallon or the number of kilowatts an appliance is projected to use over the course of the year. In Texas we measure financial integrity and assign report card grades to school districts and charter schools, but there is no single report provided by the state that shows the efficiency of a school district in obtaining desired academic results. Because a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to preserve the freedoms and rights of people, it is essential the people verify if the system established to preserve freedoms and rights is doing that efficiently.
Even though the Texas Legislature is charged to support and maintain an efficient system of free schools, I’m not sure it has ever defined what efficiency in public schools means. To some, efficiency means the district having the lowest property tax rates, and I can understand the reasons why that would be considered, but what if that same district had the worst academic performance for its students and/or spent higher amounts on central office administration? How could that be efficient? For other people, efficiency means the district with the highest academic results, but what if that district had the highest property tax rates? That could be cost prohibitive for taxpayers and would not at all be efficient. Recently Governor Abbott spoke of a 70% standard for money going to classrooms and then compared that to overspending on administration. Governor Abbot hasn’t yet been clear on what types of expenses would fall within that 70% standard, but I think we can agree that efficient schools spend lower amounts on administrative costs.
Without an efficiency standard defined by the Legislature, I offer that the district that has high academic results, collects less in property taxes, spends the most on instruction while spending the least on administrative costs is the most efficient. Looking at five of the larger districts in the El Paso area, these are how the numbers look. (see attached chart)
Comparing the information therein, Socorro ISD is the most efficient, and they’re doing that receiving about $1,000 per student less in revenue than other districts. Socorro ISD is proposing the lowest tax rate of these districts and is near the top when looking at the TEA district report card grade. It has the highest percent spending on instruction, and the lowest per student spending on administration. The tax rate proposed by Socorro ISD requires voter approval. If the tax ratification election is approved by voters, and I will be voting to approve, that $1,000 per student funding gap will be closed. The budget impact would be about $10 per month for the homeowner with an average valued home, and 24,000 taxpayers will see no increase because their school property taxes have already been frozen at zero dollars. If approved, the additional funding would buy new school buses and update HVAC systems, enhance safety and security, replace student devices and laptops (state law does not allow students to use personal devices during the school day), maintain student programs, and make the district a more competitive place to work.
In Socorro ISD, early college high school curriculum is offered at each high school, and each year hundreds of students graduate high school having already earned their associates degree saving each family about $7,000 in tuition. Career and Technical Education programs have also evolved. Students at Socorro High School can graduate and be a certified pharmacy tech, and locally that means they can graduate and earn just a little less than a first year teacher, and if they continue their education at UTEP, in a few years they would be earning what an assistant superintendent makes, showing the district is investing in incredible opportunities for students.
Socorro High School is led by an administrator who I know, who insists that students will learn and teachers will make that happen and the most recent campus report card grade shows this is happening. Before this administrator was brought to Socorro High School, it was common to find some who would have had much lower expectations for the students. Some had beliefs that students from the area around the high school couldn’t learn like their peers north of I-10, and determined leadership not only refused to believe that, it refuted that thinking by insisting on higher instructional expectations, and since this administrator’s tenure at Socorro HS, the TEA report card grade has risen from the C and D range to an overall solid B. This administrator didn’t unilaterally bring this change about. A campus full of dedicated teachers and staff took up the challenge to rightfully highlight the academic abilities of their students.
Throughout Socorro ISD, similar stories of academic success at campuses throughout the district can be found. I’m highlighting Socorro High School because of El Paso Leadership Academy, a charter school district, which recently scored a 58 on its TEA report card grade, a failing grade. Charter schools are sometimes thought of as always outperforming public schools, but not in this case. In an El Paso Times article2, the superintendent of El Paso Leadership Academy blames low reading scores and the lack of proficient English-speaking students for their woes, sort of like the old thinking that some once had around Socorro High School. Effective leadership and dedicated teachers and staff brought change to Socorro High School, and today when students graduate from Socorro High School, some are graduating with their associates degree and others are graduating from the pharmacy tech program with all of that earning potential. Both El Paso Leadership Academy and Socorro High School are located within the boundaries of Socorro ISD, but it is the public school, Socorro High School, with the greater opportunities.
El Paso Leadership Academy is an outlier among area charter schools as TEA report card grades show most charter school districts score comparably to school districts. Some score higher, and some lower, while others are in the mix. Charter schools do not always outperform public schools. Here are charter school district report card grades.
IDEA Public Schools 82
El Paso Leadership Academy 58
Triumph Public Schools 89
La Fe Preparatory School 85
Vista Del Futuro Charter School 85
El Paso Academy 92
Premier High Schools 82
Texas College Preparatory Academies 81
I’m convinced that some prefer charter schools because they do not levy property taxes. Most do not realize charter schools get $1,000 more in per student funding from the state to pay for buildings. If that funding was also given to school districts, that would eliminate most if not all I&S taxes, and that would reduce property taxes $0.27 to $0.40 per $100 of assessed value. The logic the state has in this arrangement is that local school districts can just stick it to property taxpayers and charter schools cannot. That’s an inequitable arrangement for taxpayers, and it’s coming from a state government led by a governor campaigning on eliminating school property taxes. They already had the chance to eliminate school property taxes and instead of also giving school districts that extra $1,000 per student to pay for bond debt, they decided to let people like you and me foot the bill on school district bond debt. For now any thought on eliminating school property taxes is just a campaign promise.
The campaign promise by the governor to eliminate school property taxes if implemented probably would result in less funding for public schools. Whenever school property tax rates have been reduced by Texas, there was always an understanding to school districts the state would make up the funding difference in lost property taxes. Districts like Socorro ISD have learned to be mistrustful because school districts have been shortchanged again and again by the state. Declines in enrollment will also lead to further reduced funding and declining enrollment is projected to continue for the foreseeable future, meaning less and less money will be available to school districts at a time when inflation is hitting school districts just as hard as inflation is impacting you. Declining birthrates are a major factor contributing to declining enrollment. Fewer kids are being born. Across Texas, to offset declining funding and increasing costs, districts have used similar techniques such as draining their cash reserves, laying off teachers, closing schools, deferring maintenance, delaying purchases, and having larger class sizes. Socorro ISD just about drained its cash reserves a few years ago and is now rebuilding the cash reserves with a balanced and surplus budget approach, and it is also tackling how to address these other issues and is presenting to voters the tax ratification election as an option to move forward. Without enough funding to address these issues, additional cuts will need to be made, meaning fewer administrators, teachers, and staff. There will also be fewer programs available to students at the high school level, meaning fewer opportunities.
Because I believe that a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to preserve the liberties and rights of the people, because Socorro ISD is operating efficiently with great academic results, with the highest percentage of instructional spending, the lowest per student spending on administrative costs, while proposing the lowest tax rate, and because I want students to be able to graduate with either an associate’s degree, or with the training to be certified to have a job that pays nearly as much as a first year teacher, and the many other opportunities provided by Socorro ISD that are simply too many too list, I enthusiastically support Socorro ISD and its tax ratification election.
Tom Laign is a retired teacher and special education coordinator from Socorro ISD who recently served as chair on the 2026 Budget Advisory Committee for Socorro ISD. He encourages everyone to attend school board meetings, and to become familiar with school district budgets.
SOURCES:
1 https://files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/3783/Sisd/ab1bbcad-626a-4bc6-b514-ec9b91be2224/2026-BAC-Report-to-the-Board.pdf
2 https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/education/2026/08/17/el-paso-leadership-academy-ceo-tea-ratings/91335459007/
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