The State Comptroller reports that school spending has increased by 63 percent during the last decade, outpacing both enrollment and inflation.
A new report released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs uses complicated equations to create a rating system for schools. The report literally rates schools with stars, LISD got two and a half stars out of five, and is considered to have a high spending index.
Superintendent Karen Garza said she can't fully react to the rating until she understands how it works.
"When you look at other West Texas school districts, those that are comparable to us, we fair fairly well. Of course I'm not going to be happy until in any rating system, if we're not at the top, and so I would hope that we'll be a five star district and we'll certainly strive for that. But we've got to first find out how it was calculated," Garza said.
Cherie Jenkins, President of the Lubbock Educators Association said the comptroller's report all comes back to state spending cuts.
"I believe that they're looking for ways to justify continuing to cut back public school spending and they're coming up with numbers that look good on paper as to why we should but they're not based on reality," Jenkins said.
The lengthy report also gives recommendations on how to cut back on spending. Jenkins said schools have already cut back, pretty much to bare bones."
"There's really nothing left to cut," Jenkins said.
"I will tell you that some of the recommended best practices, we're already doing in this district," Garza said.
She said the report is important to consider, but it's not the final word when it comes to running a school district.
"It will be just one tool in a range of tools that we use to determine how can we operate more efficiently and more effectively. It will be yet another tool for us to utilize," Garza said.
Only 43 out of the 1,235 schools got a five star rating.
Click here - to read the comprehensive report for your district.
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