Houston ISD board managers received an overview of potential legislation resulting from the state’s 89th legislative session that could affect the district’s budget for the 2025-26 school year, including a proposed bill that would increase public education teachers’ salaries statewide.

Board managers received the overview during a March 26 budget workshop.

The details

HISD Superintendent Mike Miles, who was appointed by the Texas Education Agency along with the district’s board of managers in June 2023, pointed to several bills officials are currently monitoring, including:
  • Senate Bill 26, which would increase teacher pay across the state
  • Senate Bill 260, which would increase school safety allotment
  • House Bill 2, which would increase the basic allotment disseminated to public school districts
”As the year goes on ... we're going to get more and more information so we can build an accurate budget,” Miles said. “We need to know exactly what the revenue side will be and that involves the legislative session.”

A closer look


During the board’s February budget workshop, Miles said the district is projecting roughly $2.1 billion in expenditures while taking in around $2.07 billion in revenue for the 2025-26 school year.

While Miles said officials would not present drafts of individual school budgets and departments until the board’s next workshop in April, he noted many aspects of those budgets would be affected by the outcome of several pending bills at the state capitol.

Miles pointed to HB 2 as one of the biggest question marks.

Currently, the bill would increase the basic allotment provided to public school districts from $6,160 per student to $6,380, which would equate to a $220 increase per student.


Miles said he believes the amount of funding provided could increase as negotiations on the bill continue.

“We pegged the increase to basic allotment to $250 [instead of the proposed $220 increase per student],” Miles said. “We think that's a conservative estimate.”

Miles also said he believed there could be an increase to the school safety allotment currently included in SB 260.

If approved as written, the bill would increase the school safety allotment provided by the state from $10 to $28 per student and would increase per-campus funding from $15,000 to $30,000.


“It does seem like there's good debate right now on increasing that amount, so we don't think it'll be lowered,” Miles said. “We think that'll be increased.”

As SB 26 is currently written, Miles said the district would stand to gain $38 million. However, he noted the increase would be budget neutral because the district would immediately contribute those funds to teachers.

What’s next

Miles noted all of the potential increases to revenue are still subject to change as legislators continue to iron out the details of the proposed bills.


“These are all assumptions ... but it does look like that how’s it will turn out,” Miles said.

Miles noted more concrete details regarding individual school budgets and department budgets would be revealed at the board’s April 23 budget workshop.