Texas School Districts Slam the Senate’s School Finance Plan

Midway ISD a school district with around students just outside Waco is staring down a growing budget deficit that Superintendent Chris Allen hoped would shrink with the new state funding for society schools provided under House Bill the school finance package that the Texas House passed in April That was until Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick unveiled the Senate s substantially different counter-proposal last week Senator Brandon Creighton opened the instruction committee s citizens hearing on the proposal Thursday morning by emphasizing that the Senate s measure would infuse nearly billion of new funding into the constituents school system But instead of making a vital increase to the basic allotment the baseline amount that a district gets per attendee the Senate version would instead earmark investments for guide pay trainer preparation and certification special schooling and school safety The Senate s plan sets aside billion for mentor pay raises There are more generous increases between and for teachers with at least three years of experience in small rural school districts while those teachers in districts with more than students the state s major urban and suburban schools would get raises of just half that range The House s -billion plan directs percent of the basic allotment increase to pay for school employees including counselors nurses and librarians which the Senate nixed The Senate s plan also allocates billion for additional special learning spending while the House caps this at million Under both plans charter schools would receive a big boost but the Senate plan would give charter schools a bigger payout with million in new funding for charter school facility improvements The House plan includes a funding increase for bilingual learning fine arts and full-day funding for pre-K though the Senate nixes those provisions But the biggest difference between the two bills is the increase to the basic allotment The House version would increase the basic allotment by to per trainee while the Senate proposes an increase of just to be funded by local taxpayers through the golden pennies mechanism That has constituents teaching advocates and Democrats raising the alarm about this significantly reduced hike which was revealed in the final stretch of the session and reportedly after weeks of secret negotiations between the Senate and House leaders Soon after the details of the Senate version were revealed House Speaker Dustin Burrows who has repeatedly disclosed that HB is his top priority this session lauded Patrick s Senate proposal and urged critics of the reduced allotment increase to not focus on just one number in the package But school district superintendents are saying that the value of this one number could under the House proposal keep the lights on in their schools and prevent further staff layoffs cuts to school programs or closures of schools Not so with the Senate proposal A record amount of money with a very narrow scope will produce this continuation of deficit budgets across Texas I promise you that Bobby Ott superintendent of Temple ISD in Central Texas stated in a video announcement Ott revealed that his district would receive only new funding from the increase to the basic allotment just enough to cover employer retirement contributions and not enough to cover raises for first and second year teachers and non-teaching staff which the Senate plan excludes Allen described the Texas Observer that with the House s proposed allotment hike Midway ISD would get million in new funding and its deficit would be million next school year Under the Senate s allotment increase he estimated Midway would get just in new funding and its deficit would deepen to million Allen declared in a video report that the Senate s offering of just more to the basic allotment is like your house being on fire and the fire department showing up with a ounce cup of water throwing it at your house and saying See look how much good we ve done He urged district stakeholders to contact their state legislators Texas lawmakers have not increased the basic allotment since and lawmakers and school leaders have testified that more than a increase would be needed to keep pace with inflation District leaders faced with rising costs flat state funding and enrollment losses have long warned that they will be forced to continue making drastic cuts if the basic allotment does not increase The House s school finance bill includes automatic increases to the basic allotment every biennium tied to property values While it mandates percent of the basic allotment increases be used to fund pay raises school districts would have flexibility to spend the remaining amount as they see fit This includes various skyrocketing expenses that the Senate plan doesn t account for district leaders stated Allen advised the Observer that Midway ISD has already cut instructional aid for new teachers increased class sizes and increased property taxes on local residents to maintain school operations If the basic allotment does not increase everything s on the table Allen noted What it will do is cause us to have to run deficit budgets for a little while At chosen point you have to get back to a balance or you can t keep the doors open Ott wrote on X If you have a child in citizens schools that is not in special development if you are a first or second year facilitator or an employee that is not a educator HB CSB has ignored your existence for funding Only experienced teachers and special ed students win Waco ISD Superintendent Tiffany Spicer recounted the Waco Tribune It looks like a historic assets but indeed is not We re getting short-changed News KXXV disclosed the district s transportation costs alone rose from million to million in Waco ISD over one school year Northwest ISD a -student district near Fort Worth noted in a announcement that even the House proposal only provided enough to cover percent of funding needed to combat increased fixed costs and unfunded mandates from the state since while the Senate version would cover just percent The district blasted the Senate for wasted funding for items districts are not requesting According to several superintendents that includes an increase to the state s merit-based facilitator pay system which will affect only percent of teachers literacy screeners for preschool students instead of full-day funding for preschool students money for third-party educator preparation programs and funding for charter school facility improvements A March survey conducted by the Texas Association of School Boards detected that percent of the school districts that responded stated they expected to end the school year in a budget deficit compared to percent last school year More than percent released plans to make cuts by cutting staff programs or shutting down schools next year Earlier this week Fort Worth ISD issued a list of schools it is proposing to close In the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs Richardson Carrollton-Farmers Branch Plano and Lewisville ISDs have or are planning to close multiple schools Lewisville ISD disclosed in social media posts that without a basic allotment increase class time foreign language classes and tutoring services would also be cut In the San Antonio area various school districts have closed schools since Near Houston Aldine ISD lately voted to close six more schools adding those to the three schools they closed last year and Spring ISD is weighing school closures amid a -million budget deficit SIGN UP FOR TEXAS OBSERVER EMAILS Get our latest in-depth reporting straight to your inbox Sign Up The Senate s late reveal of its major overhaul of the House s school finance package leaves little time to air out or resolve agenda disputes The Senate has to pass its version of HB by May Then the House can either vote to accept the Senate s version or it will go to conference committee and the House and Senate will both have to approve the final version before session ends on June Governor Greg Abbott had promised to fully fund general schools along with school vouchers and the House deployed a two-step strategy that tethered passage of school finance to vouchers when the chamber approved both last month While the Senate speedily approved the House voucher bill and Abbott signed it into law in early May the inhabitants school funding bill stalled Creighton has stated that time was spent rigorously negotiating alterations to the bill But Democrats say this was a blatant bait-and-switch This was supposed to be the Texas Two-Step but right now I m just seeing one step defunding our schools with a voucher scam State Representative James Talarico explained in a message Greg Abbott took new per-student funding hostage for his voucher scam Now after getting his way on vouchers he s killing the hostage anyway District leaders are still hoping that lawmakers will listen to what they say their schools need At least the House school funding bill stated Midway Superintendent Allen Says we re going to trust you with the money but we re going to put selected parameters around it That we can work with The post Texas School Districts Slam the Senate s School Finance Plan appeared first on The Texas Observer