For Immediate Distribution
July 9, 2015
Contact: Cameron Petty
Phone: 512-215-9105
Email: Cameron@texaseducationreform.org
In Nod to Texas’ FAST Evaluation,
US Senate Okays Efficiency Reviews for Title I Schools
Austin – Led by the efforts of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the U.S. Senate yesterday voted in favor of adding an
amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act that provides Title I schools the opportunity to use funds to
conduct financial efficiency reviews. The Texas Institute for Education Reform (TIER) commends Senator
Cornyn in his efforts to protect U.S. children by championing financial efficiency in schools nationwide.
The measure is modeled after a program called the Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) begun by
former Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and current TIER board member Susan Combs. The program
compares the financial efficiency of similar school districts with the aim of allowing administrators to see how
their peers are using funds to elicit student success outcomes.
Lori Taylor, Ph.D., Director of the Mosbacher Institute at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government
and Public Service and TIER Policy Advisory Board member, was an expert consultant for FAST.
“The aim of FAST was to provide school districts, policy makers and taxpayers with information about the
effectiveness and relative efficiency of school districts. Districts want to be cost-effective but often do not have
all the answers. By looking to successes in other districts, administrators can implement similarly innovative
solutions to benefit students,” said Taylor.
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About TIER
Founded in 2006, TIER is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to improving public education for
each and every Texas student. Through its leaders and advisors, TIER has access to the nation’s
leading education policy expertise, the best minds in the country, and will use these resources to bring to bear
on the Texas reform effort the best available research-based strategies, benchmarked practices, and policy
innovations.