Maestro Press

Research and open-source tools for public education

Research Publications

Long-form research from the Maestro Press capstone.

An "Efficient System"? Constitutional Analysis of Charter School Duplication, Bond Election Dependence, and Needs-Based Funding in the Texas School Finance System

Capstone research for INSD 5940-41 (UNT). Constitutional evaluation of post-’16 Texas school finance against Edgewood v. Kirby (1989) and Morath v. Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition (2016), with an original campus-level At-Risk Coefficient (ARC) regression model (8,674 campuses, 1,203 districts).

Chapters

  1. Chapter 1: Introduction
  2. Chapter 2: Literature Review
  3. Chapter 3: Methodology and Analysis
  4. Chapter 4A: EDA — Descriptive Findings & ARC Risk Factors
  5. Chapter 4B: Dallas ISD — TIA and the Education Privatization Pipeline
  6. Chapter 4C: Austin Area — Charter/ISD Duplication
  7. Chapter 4D: Cleveland ISD and the Bond Election Mechanism
  8. Chapter 4E: ARC as Constitutional Remedy
  9. Chapter 5: Conclusion
  10. Appendix A: References
  11. Appendix B: Glossary
  12. Appendix C: Invitation to Researchers
  13. Appendix D: Public Information Request Archive
  14. Appendix E: Legislative & Commission Archive
  15. Appendix F: Research & Analysis Archive

Policy Briefs

Legislator- and coalition-facing distillations of the capstone research.