After weeks of negotiation, a panel of Texas senators met Thursday to discuss a multifaceted public education finance package that would dedicate an additional $8 billion to Texas public schools.
Lawmakers have dramatically changed how the $8 billion will be spent since the Texas House approved the bill in April. The House’s measure would have added $395 to the base amount of spending allocated per student, known as the basic allotment.
However, the new version — which was worked out between top lawmakers in both chambers during a conference committee — decreased that amount to $55.
The basic allotment is an important number for the state’s school funding formula, which multiplies the basic allotment by characteristics of a district and its students to determine how much per student money districts get to operate schools.
Despite that decrease, Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 chair Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) told committee members on Thursday that the revamped HB 2 would give districts more agency. “There's more freedom and flexibility in the new Senate and House negotiated bill for the use of the basic allotment,” Creighton said. “Previously, it had guardrails telling districts how to use that money. So, we're shifting billions of dollars permanently off of the basic allotment pressures.”
The broad strokes of the Senate Committee Substitute for House Bill 2 have been laid out in a bill summary, but the entire 225-page bill has not yet been made public.
Creighton said that too much of the discussion around the committee substitute has been on the loss of funding for the basic allotment. Instead, he said the focus should be on where the bulk of the new money is going.
“If $55 added to the basic allotment is $800 million that means there is 7.2 billion other dollars,” Creighton said. “That's a very important point that seems to be lost in narratives right now.”
“Yes, we've got some structural differences from what the House put together, but I think a lot of the concern was mainly this — the architecture,” he added. “And, in the past, it has been just, ‘what are we adding to the basic allotment?’ And we've got some different architecture here. So, it takes a little bit to get adjusted to it — to see it for what it is — and understand that all districts are winning.”
Throughout this legislative session, school district leaders and public education advocates have been calling on the Texas Legislature to increase the basic allotment because that is the building block of the state funding formula, adding that increasing the basic allotment distributes money to districts in a format designed to improve equity.
Senator José Menendez (D-San Antonio) raised concerns about that topic during Thursday’s discussion of the bill.
“I believe that you have a lot of good reforms in the bill,” Menendez said. “I think the concern that I've been hearing … [is] the state of Texas has lost lawsuits because the state constitution requires that we provide an equitable education for all students, regardless of the zip code that they're born into.”
Menendez also said he was concerned about the increased cost in property insurance for districts, along with the increased operating costs due to inflation.
“My concern is that a lot of the inflation — price of diesel, price of all the products that these kids have, the school districts have to run their schools — has been affected,” Menendez said.
Details in House Bill 2
Sen. Creighton called teacher compensation the “heart of the plan.”
Under the new changes, HB 2 would put $4.2 billion in new money towards teacher compensation, including an across-the-board raise for experienced teachers and additional money for the Teacher Incentive Allotment, which gives select teachers additional pay based on their performance. Creighton said 80% of the $4.2 billion would go towards the raise for experienced teachers, with the remaining 20% going towards the Teacher Incentive Allotment.
“What's different about this bill, is the teacher pay increases for the first time in Texas history live beyond this House Bill 2,” Creighton said. “They're permanent. The cup is filled every two years. Every biennium.”
The across-the-board raise is earmarked for teachers with at least three years experience, with teachers in smaller districts receiving twice the money as teachers in larger districts.
In smaller districts with up to 5,000 students, teachers with three or four years of experience in districts with up to 5,000 students would receive a $5,000 raise. Teachers with at least five years of experience in districts would receive a $10,000 raise.
In larger districts with more than 5,000 students, teachers with three or four years of experience would receive a $2,500 raise. Teachers with at least five years of experience would receive a $5,500 raise.
“The reason why it begins in the third year is because our first year teachers have just negotiated their starting salaries, and we're 14th in the nation in starting salary ranking, but we are a low ranking in the nation for our experienced teachers in compensation, and we're losing them,” Creighton said.
Leaders in the legislature have said they’re directing bigger raises to small districts because they want to close salary gaps in rural districts. But according to Texas A&M University Professor Lori Taylor, district size is not a good proxy for rural.
Another part of the bill sets aside $1.3 billion for special education funding, including providing $1,000 for each special education evaluation. This segment appears to carry over from the House version of the bill.
If the details remain the same as the House version, it provides a long-sought reform to the way special education funding is distributed in the state, allowing funding to more closely match the level of services provided to a special education student.
This could theoretically free up money for other purposes, as Creighton said.
At a budget discussion last month, officials at Northside ISD in San Antonio said they spend 240% more on special education than the state requires them to spend, because the funding they currently receive for special education does not meet the level of need.
“When that happens, when we spend more than they require, you're taking away from (the basic educational programs for all students),” said Megan Bradley, Northside’s deputy superintendent of business and finance.
The rest of the new money in the Senate Committee's version of HB 2 is divided up between early learning, teacher preparation and certification, career and technical education and other school finance reforms.
With hours of public testimony to be had, the Senate committee likely won't vote on the bill until late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
