$8.5 billion school finance bill heads to Governor's desk for signature
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas House lawmakers gave the thumbs-up to a $8.5 billion school finance bill, which some in leadership called the largest investment in public schools in the state’s history. But some school district leaders said they worry about the lack of local control.
House Bill 2 is now heading to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
The additional dollars have an emphasis on raising the salaries of teachers with at least three years experience, while creating new guidelines for how the dollars can be spent by school districts.
“Texas is a big state,” said State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, on the House floor prior to passage. “Every district in our region, from El Paso to Orange and from Texoma to Brownsville, has varying needs and requests for specific support from this legislature. Satisfying all of those needs is an incredible, incredible undertaking, and I believe that this version of House Bill Two before you now meets that moment as passed by Senate.”
Highlights of the bill
Of the $8.5 billion in the bill, almost half — $4.2 billion — is dedicated strictly for teacher and staff pay raises. Teachers in smaller school districts will earn a $4,000 pay raise in their third year of teaching which will then double when they reach their fifth year of experience.
Teachers in larger school districts with more than 5,000 students will receive $2,500 after three years and $5,000 after being on the job for five years.
There is an additional $500 million in flexible funding for non-administrative staff pay raises for entry level teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, custodians and bus drivers along with other support staff.
Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036, a nonpartisan policy research organization, said in total it is around an additional $1,600 per student in Texas.
“This is an investment in particularly paying teachers more. Paying our staff members in our districts more, but then also these certain programs that we know have a really high return on investment for students,” Pruneda said.
Those programs include $677 million for early learning, $850 million for special education, and $153 million for career technical education. The bill sponsors also say it funds full-day pre-K.
At least half of the state’s public school districts are projected to receive at least $1,000 in additional per student funding with more than 350 of those districts receiving an additional $1,500 per student.
What are school leaders saying
There are more than 1,200 public school districts in Texas, all with their own unique challenges and needs depending on their size and location. Nexstar spoke to a few school leaders in districts with varying student population size.
All the school leaders said they experienced some type of financial struggle over the past couple of years as the costs of day-to-day operations increased with a lack of additional funding from the state.
School leaders in Thrall ISD, Mercedes ISD and Brownsville ISD all agreed they are grateful for any additional dollars from the state to go into their budget.
Tommy Hooker, Thrall ISD superintendent, said the increase in teacher pay is monumental.
His rural district with fewer than 900 students has grown in the past seven years, increasing by about 3% to 5% each year. Because of that, he’s had to hire more staff without any additional financial assistance from the state and his teachers went without pay raises.
Under the new bill, a majority of his teachers will see an $8,000 increase to their salary.
“We’ve not been able to do an increase like that ever locally,” Hooker said.
He added that he believes the funding is “adequate,” but expressed hesitations about the structure of the bill.
Instead of pumping new dollars to raise the basic allotment, which is the base amount of money for per student funding, lawmakers decided to create separate allotments that have guidelines in how the dollars can be spent. They even created a new allotment called the allotment for basic costs. That allotment as $1.3 billion for costs like insurance premiums that are skyrocketing, costs associated with the Teacher Retirement System, utilities and transportation.
Buckley said that allotment is to make sure the basic allotment dollars are being spent inside the classroom. But school leaders have expressed they are concerned this limits control at the local level. The basic allotment does provide more flexibility for school districts to use the money how they see fit, but the structure of this bill puts the new dollars into different sections that have a dedicated use.
Dr. Jesus Chavez, Brownsville ISD superintendent, said the lack of state funding in recent years led to his school district and others dipping into their savings to cover rising costs. For his district, Chavez said he needs money to focus on renovations to older schools.
“They’re giving us dollars but they’re telling us where to spend them. Can I move five million or can I move eight million over to roofs and air condition systems? The answer is no,” Chavez said.
Dr. Alicia Noyola, interim superintendent of schools for Mercedes ISD, said the district will close a couple of schools because of rising costs and limited funding. She too does not like the lack of flexibility with the new dollars.
“It doesn’t provide us funds to address day-to-day operations,” Noyola explained.
All of the superintendents said that they were happy with funds coming in, but that they hope to see additional dollars from the state in future sessions.
