The board of trustees unanimously approved the priority during its regular board meeting Dec. 16.
What happened
The board approved its sole legislative priority, focusing on basic allotment, to send to legislators:
- Increase the basic allotment for each student to adjust for inflation since the last increase
- Build in a future automatic increase to account for inflation
- Flow all new funding to support new laws and mandates through the basic allotment for spending at the discretion of locally elected trustees
In looking at the legislative priorities of other school districts and organizations, Superintendent Eric Wright said the "No. 1 priority" listed was to increase the basic allotment.
The basic allotment for Texas public schools—or how much a district gets paid per student—has not increased from $6,160 since 2019.
"Without a funding increase, nothing else really matters," Wright said. "... We thought it would be wise just to have one [priority] that supersedes all others. Not that any of the rest of them aren't important, but if we don't get this, we're not going to be able to give raises, we're not going to be able to sustain our [maintenance and operations] budget, and we're not going to be able to do all the great things that we're currently doing."
The board adopted its 2024-25 budget in June with a $6.2 million shortfall, which officials attributed to no increase in the basic allotment and other stagnant state funding.
What they're saying
"I think it's really smart to keep it simple," trustee Esperanza Orosco said. "I know there are lots of organizations that have a laundry list of things, and it's not really always effective when you have so many listed."
Stay tuned
The 89th Texas Legislature formally convenes Jan. 14, but lawmakers have already filed over 1,500 bills ahead of the session—including bills on education, abortion and immigration—as reported by Community Impact.
