WHEREAS, the Texas Latino community has long struggled to gain equality in the Texas school finance system, and;

WHEREAS, a great majority of Texas Latinos live in low income school districts, and;

WHEREAS, over the last 15 years, with the leadership of Latino organizations, Texas has made significant improvements in school finance, both in terms of equity and levels of funding, and;

WHEREAS, representatives from districts with high property values in Texas and others who oppose equity in school finance are planning to weaken these gains during the next Texas legislative session;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that LULAC:

1.will oppose any effort to remove the requirement of the wealthiest school districts in Texas to share the yield of their vast wealth with other districts in Texas, unless a new system of complete school finance equity becomes law, and
2.will oppose any effort to develop a school finance system which guarantees "adequacy" or any other "level" of funding to all school districts but allows wealthy districts to easily supplement this level from their local resources, and
3.will oppose any effort to base school funding in Texas solely on the number of the students in a school district, without building into the system additional funding for students with special needs including such programs as bilingual education, special education, and reading needs, and
4.will support additional funding for public schools, as long as the system is equitable and funding is directed to districts with significant numbers and percentages of low-income and minority children

Submitted by Rosa Rosales, National Vice President for Women, Council #649
District XV, San Antonio, Texas.

Approved this 29th day of June, 2002.

Hector M. Flores
LULAC National President