Houston ISD board managers are contending with a roughly $528 million budget shortfall as officials make finalizations to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2024-25.

The overview

Board managers will consider adopting the budget for FY 2024-25 at their June 13 meeting.

HISD Chief Financial Officer Jim Terry said the district is projecting roughly $2.8 billion in expenses for FY 2024-25 compared to around $2.3 billion received in revenue.

To offset the difference, officials are planning on using $131 million in reserves while making another $500 million in cuts. HISD Superintendent Mike Miles said the district would still have about $801 million in reserve funding, noting the drop shouldn’t affect district’s bond rating.


How we got here

During a May 23 budget workshop, Terry pointed to several factors leading to the district’s budget shortfall, including:
  • A roughly 10.8% decrease in student population since the 2019-20 school year
  • The loss of roughly $324 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding distributed in FY 2023-24
  • A roughly 20% decrease in purchasing power due to inflation
Terry said the district is projecting a student population of 179,592 for the 2024-25 school year, which would represent a roughly 14.2% decrease from the district’s student population of 209,309 students in the 2019-20 school year.
Terry said the drop in student population has led to a significant reduction in funding the district receives from the state.

A closer look

During the May 23 workshop, Miles said a sizable portion of the spending cuts will come from eliminating jobs in HISD’s central office.


While Miles did not provide any details regarding the number of positions that would be cut, he outlined proposed spending reductions for several departments in the district’s central office, including:
  • An 88%, or roughly $97 million, reduction to the district’s human resources office’s budget
  • A 45%, or roughly $101 million, budget reduction for the district’s operations office, which employs custodians, bus drivers, maintenance workers and other nonteaching staff members
  • A 37%, or roughly $69 million, budget reduction for the district’s academics office, which employs classroom and curriculum support staff
  • A 58%, or about $68 million, reduction to the district’s information technology office’s budget
According to budget documents, the 130 campuses participating in the district’s “New Education System” will see budget increases due to increased teacher salaries. However, most of the remaining campuses will see budget cuts.

What’s next

Board managers will consider adopting the budget for FY 2024-25 at their June 13 meeting. While the board is scheduled to meet for a regularly scheduled workshop on June 10, an agenda for the meeting had not yet been posted to the district’s website as of press time.