After months of debate, revisions and negotiations behind closed doors, a sweeping school funding bill is now heading to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature after getting the final nod for lawmakers on Thursday.
Over the last several weeks, the Texas Legislature went back and forth, wrestling over exactly how the billions of dollars in House Bill 2 would be distributed into the public school system.
A compromise was reached between the House and Senate last week that earned enough support to pass the chambers.
House Education Committee Chair Rep. Brad Buckely celebrated the announcement of the deal being struck last Wednesday.
“This bill is about the classroom. It’s about safe schools. It’s about early education, early literacy and numeracy to make sure those kids learn more. It’s about career and technical education. And then it’s about investing in our teachers,” said Buckley.
The final version of HB 2 injects $8.5 billion into the public school system.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows said: “The amended legislation reflects constructive input from both chambers and parties, and a shared commitment to delivering historic school funding and teacher pay raises this session. Leaders are calling it the largest single increase in public education funding in Texas history.”
But Chandra Villanueva with Every Texan says the amount, when adjusted for inflation, is far below what the state added to the education system in 1984.
“The biggest increase in school funding that I believe we’ve seen in the history of Texas would be in 1984 when we passed HB 72, and that is the bill that created the school finance system we have today,” Villanueva said in April. “I believe it was $14 billion in today’s dollars.”
Throughout the legislative session, school leaders and public education advocates called on state lawmakers to increase the basic allotment to better align their budgets with the spending power they had prior to the pandemic.
The basic allotment is the base amount of funding allocated per student under the Texas school funding formula. It’s multiplied by weights based on the characteristics of a school and its students, like enrollment and income, in order to determine the total amount of funding a district receives to operate schools.
School finance experts and advocates say the basic allotment would need to increase by at least $1,100 to account for the spike in inflation since the last time the basic allotment was increased in 2019.
However, instead of using the $8.5 million in new money for public schools to boost the basic allotment, the school funding package headed to the governor’s desk creates new funding allotments that can only be used as directed in the bill.
“The majority of these funds go straight to the classroom — not bureaucracy — ensuring student success drives every decision,” Senate K-16 Education Chair Brandon Creighton said in a statement on the measure earlier this session.
Creighton later took to X to elaborate on that point during the Senate’s initial vote on the bill.
“In case I haven’t been clear: This is not a blank check. Every dollar in this bill is strategic, results-driven, and classroom-focused,” Creighton posted.
Raise Your Hand Texas is one of the advocacy groups that pushed for an increase in the basic allotment. Even though the basic allotment will only increase by $55, the group said House Bill 2 “provides much-needed support” to districts.
“This is a good start. It’ll help them get through the next few school years. And we’re going to have to reevaluate as we move along on kind of what shortfalls still remain after the bill,” said Bob Popinksi, senior director of policy at Raise Your Hand Texas.
House Bill 2 includes $4.2 billion in targeted pay raises for teachers and support staff, $1.3 billion for basic costs like insurance, diesel and utilities, and $850 million for special education.
Popinski said the basic allotment is the easiest way to distribute money fairly to school districts, but that the directed allotments in House Bill 2 account for the biggest needs districts have.
What is in House Bill 2 and how can the money be used?
Teacher & staff pay raises
Nearly half of the bill’s funding is allocated for teacher and staff pay raises — $4.2 billion to be exact.
Dax Gonzalez with the Texas Association of School Boards said that lines up with how districts spend their money currently.
“The average district pays half of its budget toward salaries already,” Gonzalez said. “So it is a good bet that whether you put it in the basic allotment or in a direct teacher allotment, most of that money is going to make its way to teachers.”
Specifically, the bill gives raises to teachers based on their years of experience and the size of the school district where they work.
Those who teach in districts with 5,000 or fewer students will get a $4,000 raise if they have three or four years of experience; more experience than that gets them an $8,000 raise.
For those in districts with more than 5,000 students, teachers with three to four years of experience will get a $2,500 raise, with that pay bump increasing to $5,000 for teachers with more experience.
Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, in announcing the proposal, said “my priority has always been to pay teachers as professionals.”
The legislation also includes $1.3 billion in Allotment for Basic Costs to assist districts with expenses like insurance, utilities and contributions to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
School safety
House Bill 2 includes $430 million that will be used to boost school safety in a variety of ways. It gives each school campus $33,500 towards school safety efforts, plus an additional $20 for each student attending the school.
Some of the things the schools are asked to use the money on include installation of perimeter security fencing, safety upgrades for exterior doors and windows and installing window security film that provides resistance to forced entry.
Special education
There’s $850 million in the bill for special education, including $1,000 reimbursements for often-costly student evaluations. The money will be available the first year the bill is in effect, eventually expanding into what’s called an “intensity of service model” in year two.
That model will allow each student with special needs to receive money based on their individual needs.
Lawmakers believe this change will help ensure that students with the most needs get the level of attention and education they need in order to succeed.
Full-day pre-K
In the joint statement announcing the school funding compromise, state lawmakers said House Bill 2 would also fund full-day pre-K.
But Peter Clark with the advocacy group Texans Care for Children said that, while HB 2 requires districts to provide full-day pre-K, the measure doesn’t provide enough funding.
“Pre-K is still funded at half the rate of kindergarten even though full-day pre-K is required,” Clark said in an email to Texas Public Radio.
“HB 2 tweaks the distribution of the Early Education Allotment but does not correct the half-day funding formula,” said Clark.