Central Texas districts talk about legislature's school funding
School districts talk about legislature funding
A lot of school districts are hoping to see lawmakers take action to increase school funding. Last week, 7 On Your Side looked at the impact of that situation at Austin ISD. Now, John Krinjak takes a look at two more districts dealing with the lack of state funding
DEL VALLE, Texas - Tuesday, Jan. 14, was the first day of the legislative session at the Texas Capitol, and many local school districts are hoping to see lawmakers increase school funding, after failing to do so last session.
FOX 7 spoke to the superintendents of two suburban districts in Central Texas, Del Valle ISD and Hays CISD. They both said action from the legislature to boost school funding is long overdue.
"We're having to make really tough decisions," said Del Valle Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez.
Tough decisions are on the table in Del Valle, as the district faces a $2 million deficit for the current school year.
"A $2 million deficit is huge," said Gutierrez.
Like many other superintendents, Gutierrez attributes much of that to the legislature failing to pass a school funding measure in the last legislative session, largely because it was tied to Gov. Greg Abbott's school choice voucher plan.
RELATED: Texas schools hoping lawmakers increase funding during legislative session
"We're in political crossfires, which is extremely unfortunate," said Gutierrez. "I truly believe that we would not have adopted a deficit budget if additional dollars had rolled in."
While the fiscal situation in Del Valle isn't as dire as other districts, cuts are being discussed.
"I think it could result in the delay of some of the replacement cycles for whether it's aging furniture or technology, it's transportation, it's updating aging facilities," said Gutierrez. "Could possibly need to look at increasing class sizes."
Child care programs, as well as teacher pay and benefits, could also take a hit.
"What we can't do is give salary increases in a competitive way to keep up with the rising costs of inflation," said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez is concerned those cuts could ultimately hurt Del Valle students, many of whom come from low-income households, or need extra support.
"The decisions that schools could potentially have to make will have an impact on student outcomes," said Gutierrez.
AISD budget deficit and the Texas legislature
The new legislative session starts soon. All this month, 7 On Your Side will be taking a look at some of the big issues at the state capitol. Among them is education after the legislature failed to pass a school funding measures during the last session. As a result, districts across Central Texas are finding themselves "in the red," including Austin ISD
In Hays County, it's a similar picture.
"This current year, we adopted about a $6 million deficit budget," said Hays CISD Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright.
Wright says that shortfall was originally closer to $12 or $15 million, but some strategic cuts were made.
"We attacked items that would hopefully not be felt by the students at their level. And so we tried to take care of a lot of things at the central office level and some staffing issues. No one lost their jobs, thank goodness. But we were able to repurpose some things," said Wright.
Those constraints, Wright says, are largely the product of the legislature not increasing the basic allotment per student amount that districts receive from the state, since 2019.
"We get right now $6,100 roughly per kid. And the buying power with that inflation would need to be adjusted to $7,500 per student for us to be able to do the same things and have the same buying power that we had back in 2019," said Wright.
If that doesn't change, Wright says giving competitive raises to teachers could be an issue.
"Because we have tapped that reserve, we can't go any further," said Wright. "And so it would be harmful moving forward."
Texas: The Issue Is: School choice fight
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is confident that school choice legislation will pass during the next legislative session, but Democrats say they won't roll over without a fight. FOX 7's Rudy Koski talks to vocal voucher opponent State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, about the fight ahead and if there is room for common ground.
The good news? As of now, there have been no cuts to athletics or the arts, and plans to install seat belts on all Hays CISD buses following last year's deadly crash are still on track.
"Through our bond process, we have been able to earmark the funds necessary to make sure that all of our buses will have seatbelts," said Wright. "And so, hopefully, all the buses will have seat belts within the next probably year, year and a half, depending on how fast they can build them."
Meanwhile, Abbott has recently pledged that school funding will be a priority this session.
"We will fully fund public schools in the state of Texas. We will provide teacher pay raises," Abbott said in November.
But in a post on X last month, Abbott argued Texas does fully fund its schools, touting record funding under his watch, and a 57% increase since 2015.
"It's time for them to act," said Wright.
District leaders are hopeful that if lawmakers do take action, the most painful cuts can ultimately be avoided.
"I truly believe that this is an opportunity for our legislators to really have a significant impact on public education. This is an opportunity to invest in our future," said Gutierrez.
In addition to raising that basic allotment, Gutierrez says basing per-student funding on enrollment, rather than attendance, would make a huge difference. He's also calling for increased funding for special education, which lags behind other districts.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak