Round Rock ISD officials will revisit the district's legislative priorities and consider a resolution regarding adequate funding for public schools Oct. 19.

What's happening?

At the next meeting of the RRISD board of trustees, the board will discuss and potentially vote on additional legislative priorities around the funding of public education. These legislative updates coincide with an ongoing special session of the Texas Legislature focused on education.

The legislative priorities focus on the funding of public education, and are accompanied by a resolution calling on state officials to fully fund public education, and refrain from allowing public funds to be used to fund private education.

The specifics

Legislative priorities to be considered are listed in district documents available here. They include the following:

• Invest in public education to address pandemic learning loss, and allow districts to increase teacher salaries to recruit and retain high-quality educators.
• Increase the school safety allotment from $9.37 per average daily attendance to $200 per student.
• Adjust the Texas Education Agency's A-F rating system to include non-test-based factors, and create flexibility in accelerated learning requirements mandated by House Bill 4545 to allow districts to allocate resources according to student needs.
• Focus on retention and recruitment of teachers.
• Prevent the use of state funds for private education.

The resolution to be considered also lays out a call to state officials to increase the basic allotment, which is the per-student funding received by Texas public schools from the state; separate discussions of funding for public education from those of using public funds for private education; oppose the use of public funds for private education, such as through the creation of Educational Savings Accounts, vouchers or tax credits; and allow boards of trustees and superintendents to oversee operations of their school districts.

Language for the resolution is available here.