In a nutshell
The district's board of trustees voted 6-1 to approve a list of priorities before the next legislative session, which is slated to start Jan. 15. The list is meant to guide the district’s advocacy in the upcoming legislative session, according to a Nov. 18 meeting agenda.
Board member Dalia Begin provided the dissenting vote.
The district’s priorities are aligned with the Texas School Coalition. The Texas School Coalition was founded about 30 years ago and represents recapture districts across the state, Superintendent Brad Schnautz said.
“We’d like to band together and just really trade best practices,” he said. “Right now, we’re all dealing with a similar issue and it’s the lack of school funding.”
Breaking it down
The board approved the following priorities in the form of a resolution. The list can be accessed online.
- Increase public school funding
- Increase the per-student basic allotment and index for inflation.
- Allow districts to keep 100% of voter-approved funds
- Lessen the burden of recapture and ensure accountability for those funds.
- Shift to enrollment-based funding rather than attendance-based funding.
- Fully fund state mandates
- Required armed peace officers and other security measures
- Full-day pre-kindergarten
- Cover costs of future mandates
- Fund allotments based on costs
- Shift special education funding model from classroom placement to cost of services.
- Provide flexibility to districts to apply funding to unique needs.
- Improve teacher recruitment and retention
- Increase teacher compensation.
- Support programs to incentivize entering the profession.
- Increase teacher retirement system pension to provide a sustainable retirement program.
- Reform state accountability system
- Minimize impact of STAAR as primary factor of ratings.
- Modify online testing requirements and allow for accommodations.
During a discussion before voting, Begin said she would have liked to see a priority about keeping public dollars in public schools included on the list. While the school voucher legislation hasn’t passed yet, Begin said she thinks it's likely to pass.
“When you think about additional property tax relief measures that are coming down, which is great, but also the call to increase public funding and then the potential for vouchers to pass, I am not as bullish on the increased funding,” she said. “Especially after meeting with some of our representatives where the increase to basic allotment is not going to be as grand and quite frankly, the state won’t be able to afford all these things.”
Board Vice President Mary Humphrey said the board does not support school vouchers but that is not a fight they are going to win. Instead, the district is going to be part of a unified voice with other school districts asking for more funding.
“We’re wanting to be aligned with districts that have similar needs,” Humphrey said. “We want to use the same language in what we are asking for in this legislative session.”
Board member Tammy Nakamura said even after the priorities are approved, the board’s work is not done. Officials are planning to meet with Public Education Committee Chair Brad Buckley in December to discuss the district’s priorities, she said.
“We’re working very hard to meet with as many people as we can,” Nakamura said. “We’re not just writing these down, sending them up and then doing nothing.”
What’s next?
The Texas Legislature convenes Jan. 15. Members of the Texas House and Senate began filing bills Nov. 12 ahead of the 2025 session. Lawmakers are expected to consider a private school voucher program again after several pro-voucher Republicans ousted incumbents in the March primary.
A voucher program would give public money to families to send their kids to private school. Opponents of the program say it would strip public schools of critical funding.
The House now has 79 “hardcore school choice proponents,” Gov. Greg Abbott said Nov. 6. A 76-vote majority is all that’s needed to pass legislation in the House chamber.
