As it stands, Texas teachers remain underpaid, the basic allotment did not increase, and special sessions hold the threat of private school vouchers. Local school districts are encountering a number of issues during this period of historic inflation with no additional funding from the state.
Bob Popinski, Senior Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas, said the lack of state funding is putting superintendents and school board officials in a financial bind, causing districts to dip into their fund balances and adopt deficit budgets as they struggle to pay teachers’ salaries among a number of other inflated costs.
“Our schools are in dire need of funding,” he said. “With double-digit inflation and 77% of teachers considering leaving the profession, we need to focus on the 5.4 million kids and nearly 400,000 teachers and get that right first.”
The damage to local districts
Comal ISD Superintendent Dr. John Chapman said Texas public school districts are not immune to the rising costs of goods and services that continue to plague the nation.
Comal ISD is a fast-growing district with more than 27,300 students across its 34 schools spanning 589 square miles. Projections put the district with an enrollment of more than 31,400 students in 2024-25 and more than 38,000 students in the 2029-30 school year.
“Since the enactment of House Bill 3 in 2019, the rate of inflation has been calculated to be as high as 14.5%,” he said. “Costs such as fuel for buses, copy paper, utilities, instructional supplies, maintenance supplies, technology and insurance, to name a few, have outpaced the level of increased funding that was provided in the bill.”
HB 3 raised the basic allotment from $5,140 to $6,160 and established an optional Teacher Incentive Allotment. However, this year, of the $33 billion, legislators spent $18 billion on tax relief, while leaving public education funding pending for special sessions.
“The inaction has also created a shortfall in classroom support positions, which again has a direct detrimental impact on student learning,” Dr. Chapman said.
Why public education priorities didn’t pass
Throughout the session, the caveat for including private school vouchers in public education bills became a way to derail the passage of public school priorities.
Even with clear evidence that many legislators and Texas residents did not support Education Savings Accounts or private school vouchers, legislative leadership continued to push the unpopular policy.
Popinski said Raise Your Hand Texas believes vouchers are bad policy for the state of Texas, and that public education funding should be kept separate from the debate about the merits of a voucher program.
“Vouchers don’t help student achievement, and they take away funding from public schools,” he said. ”If you think you need to use a voucher as a bargaining chip for funding our schools, then you may not have a great public policy for education.”
It's time to raise the basic allotment
Out of the $33 billion, legislators spent $18 billion on tax relief, while leaving public education pending for special sessions.
In Texas, the basic allotment has not increased since 2019. In addition, the state ranks in the bottom 10 nationwide for per-student funding, coming in at $4,000 under the national average.
Popinski said property tax relief and property taxes are linked to school funding.
“You’re going to see a number out there that says the Texas Legislature is now funding our schools at a record high, right over 50%,” Popinski said. “But that does not mean that per-student funding increased—it just means that they're offsetting property tax reduction through the school funding formulas.”
Without a basic allotment increase, districts are left without funding for inflation adjustments that affect school staff, property and casualty insurance, instructional materials and more.
“All these factors have had an impact on district budgets as most districts are now adopting deficit budgets” Chapman said. “Districts will more than likely be required to make program cuts and maintain current staff compensation levels in future years to offset those deficits.”
Impacting the classroom
For Dr. Chapman and Comal ISD, the lack of funding for public education priorities carries the threat of impacting students’ classroom experience.
“On average, Texas teachers make nearly $7,500 less than the national teacher salary average,” he said. “Teachers are required to do more, with less.”
The lack of funding for teacher pay impacts both current and retired teachers.
“Texas ranks as one of the worst states for teacher retirement,” he said. “Retired Texas teachers have not received a cost-of-living raise since 2004, and that has also contributed to the difficulty of retaining teachers.”
In April 2023, the House approved Senate Bill 10, which would give retired teachers varying pay increases based on their year of retirement. However, to go into effect, voters in Texas would need to approve an amendment to the Texas constitution in the Nov. 7 election. Constituents would vote to move the nearly $2 billion from general funds to the Teacher Retirement System.
To compensate for the lack of state funding, Dr. Chapman said many districts are increasing class sizes, which has a direct detrimental impact on student learning.
“In larger classes many students do not receive the acute attention and help they may need and it adds additional strain on the teacher,” he said.
To compensate, districts throughout the state have implemented recruitment tools such as sign-on bonuses, retention stipends and increased stipend amounts for additional assignments, which all have an impact on the overall budget, he said.
How to stay involved and impact change
State leadership has indicated that a special session will be held to look at private school vouchers, school funding, assessment and accountability reform, and potentially other education issues.
To learn more about how state policy is affecting local districts, sign up receive information from Raise Your Hand Texas through various avenues:
- Sign up for the Across the Lawn newsletter
- Listen to the Intersect Ed podcast
- Connect with your local Raise Your Hand Texas Regional Advocacy Director
The above story was produced by Summer El-Shahawy with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
