AUSTIN — Texas Democrats unveiled their own school finance plan Thursday that they said will fully fund the state’s public schools.
House Bill 177, authored by state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, is dubbed the “Fully Fund Our Future Act.” It provides teacher pay increases, a bonus for support staff and an increase in the student basic allotment.
“It’s time we put our money where our mouth is,” Hinojosa said.
The bill makes a $15,000 pay raise for public school teachers its cornerstone.
Hinojosa said college graduates with education levels similar to that of teachers are making 21.5% more than Texas teachers. This comes at a time the state is also losing a record number of teachers. The Texas Education Agency reported in September that more than 13% of the state’s teachers — nearly 50,000 of them — left the profession last year, resulting in the highest annual loss on record.
“It’s time we stop paying just lip service to support our Texas teachers and start paying them their actual worth,” Hinojosa said.
The bill also adds a $5,500 bonus for all support staff on a school campus and increases the student basic allotment an additional $2,787. Currently the student basic allotment is $6,160 per student. It has not been raised since 2019, despite inflation. Hinojosa added that the bill includes an annual adjustment for inflation.
In addition, the bill includes separate additional funding for special education programs by allocating $2.3 billion annually for the biennium and $3 billion of school safety measures to help schools pay for recent legislation that requires, for example, an armed officer on every campus during school hours.
The bill also changes the fundamental funding mechanism for public schools. Currently, Texas schools are paid by the state based on average daily attendance, or attendance counts over the year. This means schools do not receive funding for the day a student is absent, even though its other services must continue. The act would change the funding mechanism to be enrollment based, so that schools receive funding based on the number of students enrolled.
“We are one of only six states in the entire country that still punishes our kids for absences, and in an age where kids are absent more often because of COVID, we’re leaving billions of dollars on the table that should be going to our kids,” Hinojosa said.
Texas currently has $23 billion in available funding and according to new data from the Texas Comptroller’s Office, by 2025, it will have another $23 billion in its Rainy Day Fund.
State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat and chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said he believes there is plenty of state funding to cover the cost of the Act.
“We have the ninth largest economy in the world, yet we ranked 43rd in the country when it comes to (education) spending,” Martinez-Fisher said. “House Democrats know that if we are committed to public education, if we are willing, there is a way to fund our Fully Fund Our Future Act.”
Texas lawmakers are back in at the capitol for their third special session that launched on Oct. 9.
At the top of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority list is establishing education savings accounts that will allow state dollars to flow to families to pay for education outside of public and charter schools, such as private and homeschooling options, as well as uniforms, textbooks, tutoring or transportation, among other things.
The Texas Senate passed a version of the bill last week that allows parents to collect $8,000 of taxpayer money.
The Texas House continues to stall on the measure, as well as other priorities, as it is not scheduled to be back on the floor until Monday – half way through the 30-day maximum special session. The Texas Senate also passed a teacher pay raise bill that includes a $10,000 raise for rural teachers and a $3,000 raise for our urban teachers.
“Texas parents want school choice to pass,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said following the vote. “The House needs to get to work because Texans are watching.”