With the growth of alternative schooling options, the student population for local public school districts has seen a steady decline over the last 10 years. As students transfer from public schools, the district can lose thousands of dollars in basic allotment, which are state funds given to districts based on student attendance.
"School funding is a very complex system that I think people have just equated to property taxes,” North East ISD Superintendent Sean Maika said. [“When] we talk about the basic allotment—which is $6,160 per student—that's not all of the money that we get for a child, because in the system of school finance, they give us weights. [Essentially] we are truly funded based on average daily attendance and the number of students in our schools.”
Two-minute impact
Community Impact analyzed student enrollment and transfer data from the Texas Education Agency for Northside ISD and NEISD. According to the data, a majority of students transferring out of the districts are choosing to transfer to charter and private schools.
In NISD, TEA data shows that over 20,000 students transferred out of the district during the 2024-25 school year, with over 16,000 of those students—roughly 81%—transferring to local charter and private schools. NEISD saw over 10,000 transfers in the 2024-25 school year, with over 8,423 of those students—or roughly 77%—transferring to local charter and private schools.
For NISD, a majority of students transferred to charter schools such as Idea Public Schools, Basis Texas and the School of Science and Technology Discovery.
In NEISD, students transferred to Great Hearts Texas, Idea Public Schools, San Antonio ISD and Basis Texas.
According to data from the TEA, there has been a 323% increase in transfers out of NISD and a 140% increase in transfers out of NEISD over a 10-year period.
NISD Superintendent John Craft said transfers in and out of the district are dependent on what works best for individual families.
“I think a lot of it is going to be dependent upon where the parent works in proximity to the location of the campus and the ability to be able to drop the students off and pick the students up at the end of the day,” Craft said.
Maika said the decline in public school attendance doesn’t need to be viewed in an entirely negative mindset, but rather, as a learning experience.
“What we're embracing here in [NEISD] is, what are we to learn from this experience? ... I think we have this opportunity to really reenvision public education in a sense, and get really good at [specific] things, rather than trying to do it all," Maika said.
Inga Cotton, founder and executive director of School Discovery Network, said alternative schooling options offer a range of benefits, such as hands-on learning environments, specialized focus areas like early college programs and STEM, more advanced coursework and smaller class sizes.
“I think the number one [driving factor to choose charter schools] is learning models ...” Cotton said. “Understanding what those learning models are and finding [what works best for your child is] the number one driver. The other concern we hear from parents is [that their] neighborhood public school isn't offering enough advanced work.”
Cotton also pointed out that charter schools are easier to get into than they were 10-20 years ago.
“Campuses aren't running wait lists as long as they were before, because there aren't as many kids and more campuses have opened,” Cotton said.
Maika said public schools offer a wide range of options that allow students to tailor their education around future careers.
“We have a lot of different offerings, whether it's in our career and technical education, whether it's HVAC or cybersecurity or anything in between ...” Maika said. “I think the difference is public education really allows kids to find their unique path, and there's a program there for them to find what they're good at and to excel.”
Craft added that public schools not only offer athletics and other extracurricular activities, but a wide range of specialty programs.
“There are very few programs that we don't offer,” Craft said. “I think that's what differentiates Northside [ISD] from private institutions and charter schools.”
Driving decisions to choose charter/private schools:
- Unique learning models
- Advanced coursework
- Smaller class size
- Higher emphasis on college readiness
- Individualized student support
- Diverse program offerings
- Extracurricular activities
- Career and technical education programs
- University Interscholastic League
- School choice within the district system
On May 3, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law, which enacts a program allowing families to use public funds for private education beginning in the 2026-27 school year. The bill sets aside $1 billion for education savings accounts, or ESAs, that can be used to pay for private school tuition and other educational expenses.
Craft said the effects of the ESAs won’t be fully known for a few years, as they are designed as a tiered system to help those most in need.
“It's hard to predict exactly what an ESA fully implemented will entail,” Craft said. “I do anticipate that we will see students that will unenroll in NISD and pursue a private school education utilizing the $10,000. But, how many students? It's just hard to determine.”
