The state government takes more than 30% of property taxes that are designated for the school district without taxpayers’ knowledge. Recapture took nearly $170 million from the school district, on average, for the past six years. So, where is this money going? Nobody knows. The State government takes the tax dollars designated for local school districts with no transparency; in essence, recapture programs steal from the taxpayers and the schools. The current recapture legislation needs to change for the benefit of public schools recapture needs restructuring to emphasize transparency. 

According to Every Texan, the intention behind recapture programs is to level the playing field between property-wealthy and property-poor districts. The issue arises though: there is no evidence that this money actually benefits poorer districts. There are zero public records of where recaptured money is going. Glenn Hegar, the current Public Accounts Comptroller, stated Texas citizens have the right to know how the government spends their tax dollars in his “Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” This raises the question, why is the state government not publishing recapture finance records?

If the state government has nothing to hide, then they would publish the records. The withholding of basic information calls into question where taxpayer dollars are actually spent. As the current system stands, there is no guarantee that the money they take specifically for financing poorer districts does anything but line politicians’ pockets. Statements from the Texas State Teachers Association saying that Greg Abbott “left public school districts woefully underfunded,” and “Abbott is now campaigning against a group of Texas House members from his own party for trying to protect their public schools,” call into further question the confidence that recapture programs act legitimately. 

While Abbott is not the most favored candidate for improving Texas public education, under his administration, important steps have been taken. For instance, in 2019, Abbott signed House Bill Three; this bill created merit-based bonus programs for teachers, as well as allotted extra finances to high-needs and rural schools. Under Abbott, teacher salaries also reportedly reached their highest levels they’ve ever been, and the same goes for spending on schools in general, according to the Office of the Texas Governor. However, the actual value of teachers’ pay is less than it was at the start of Abbott’s first term due to inflation and increased hours for teachers. Since the 2019-2020 school year, the number of minutes worked increased by 1580, which translates to 26 and ⅓ hours, while pay, adjusted for inflation, decreased by $10,632; this means that teacher salaries are in essence $12,000 less than they would be if pay rate stayed the same since the beginning of Greg Abbotts’ term.

When school districts report being perpetually underfunded, the governor sees teacher wages go down in value, and the government withholds financial records, the idea that recapture is helping anybody begins to seem absurd. There is more evidence to support the idea that the state government pockets recapture money or diverts it than there is to suggest that it is distributed as they report. If recapture is to actually work, then the taxpayers and students must petition the state legislature to make recapture receipts public record. Only when the information surrounding tax dollars is free can the taxpayer willingly pay taxes. As it stands currently, recapture amounts to little more than government-sanctioned theft; it is time for theft to end and real support for the people’s education to begin.