Texas Senate will debate how to spend an additional $8 billion on school finance
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 will hold a hearing Thursday morning to discuss the future of public school financing, nearly a month after the House passed a bill to give public schools an almost $8 billion in additional funding.
The bill being discussed on Thursday is a different version from the bill the Texas House passed on April 17, which is not a surprise. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the chair of the education committee, told Nexstar earlier this month there are differences in how the House and Senate want to finance public schools.
On Tuesday, his office released a one-pager with highlights of his committee substitute to House Bill 2. It details pay raises for teachers with at least three years of experience and an even bigger pay bump for teachers with more than 5 years of experience; provides payment to teacher candidates for in-classroom, pre-service training; and provides an additional $1.3 billion in special education funding, among other things.
CSHB-2-One-Pager-5.12-EODDownload
Although the two approaches vary, they both have a similar end-goal: additional funding for schools that falls between $7 and $8 billion. The differences in the bill come down to the different avenues and pathways lawmakers want to use to finance schools.
The specific details of the bill will not come out until Thursday morning when it is laid out in committee.
A huge difference can be seen with the basic allotment. The basic allotment is the base-level funding for each student in public schools across the state. It is very flexible for school districts and can be used for maintenance, teacher and staff salaries, transportation, etc.
The House's version of the bill, authored by State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, provided a $440 increase in the basic allotment, which has not been raised since 2019. Texas House Democrats argued that number was far too low to help school districts catch up with the rise in inflation. Instead, they wanted a $1,400 increase.
However, it appears the Senate's version of the bill only increases the basic allotment by $55 through golden penny yield reforms.
Texas' Big Three — Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dustin Burrows — all praised the proposal from Creighton at a news conference on Wednesday. Burrows said he is 'excited' about the bill, and Patrick said he has looked through the legislation and called it a 'masterpiece of school finance.'
But the bill is facing criticism before it is even laid out in committee. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, issued a statement saying, 'Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans are defunding our schools in broad daylight.' He argues the Senate's proposal removes funding for full-day pre-K, low-income students, and bilingual education programs.
The low increase in the basic allotment has raised the alarm for Stephanie Stoebe, a 4th grade teacher in Round Rock ISD with 21 years of teaching experience. She wants to see an increase in the basic allotment and an increase in teacher compensation. 'About 80% of school districts are are operating with a deficit. So we desperately need to have a change to the basic allotment system so that we can function,' Stoebe said.
Mary Lynn Pruneda, the director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036, said the low increase in the basic allotment is not necessarily underfund a school, emphasizing that the school finance system is complex. 'There are 1,000 different ways that you can spend money in school finance. Just because you're not solely putting money into the basic allotment, doesn't mean that you're not doing other great things downstream in the formulas as well.'
Pruneda said Creighton's approach of creating a designated allotment for teacher pay raises could free up some dollars in the basic allotment for school districts to use toward other costs. 'It's like if suddenly you got 10% more on your paycheck, you put that towards your mortgage, that means that you have more money to free up groceries,' Pruneda said as an example.
The different versions of the bill is expected to be heavily debated in the hearing on Thursday morning. Public school advocates are already putting a call out to members to show up at the Capitol for the hearing.
Ultimately, Pruneda explains it is not about the final price tag of the school finance bill, but how that money is going to be used to improve the education of Texas students. Stoebe, who has seen generations of students come through her classroom, echoes that same belief.
'If we want to have a great, civilized and responsible society, we need to make sure that we're educating them in the best way possible, and that can only come about by really ethical conversations about money,' Stoebe said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
7 minutes ago
- CNN
‘It is a whole different environment': Republicans revisit key Biden investigations with new momentum
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to interview former Hunter Biden special counsel David Weiss behind closed doors on Friday, two sources familiar with the interview told CNN, as part of a broader Republican effort to revisit previous probes into the Biden family that stalled last Congress but are gaining new momentum now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. The scheduled interview, which could still be moved, would be the second time the Republican-led panel will interview Weiss about his work as Republicans continue to probe whether the investigation was hampered by political interference. Weiss has still never testified publicly about his six-year criminal probe into the president's son, which included three convictions, but was ultimately short-circuited as a result of the former president's unconditional pardon of his son. House Judiciary Republicans have long wanted to call Weiss, the Trump-appointed US attorney, back for questioning after his first closed-door interview in 2023. Committee Republicans were also able to finally secure interviews with two Department of Justice tax division prosecutors involved in the Hunter Biden probe who they had been aggressively pursuing for months, one of the sources familiar told CNN. The Justice Department is working with Weiss to provide access to documents he may need for his interview, a person briefed on the matter said. Any delays in getting access to documents would be a scheduling issue and the ability to have personnel who can oversee it, the person briefed on the matter said. It's not the only Biden investigation Republicans are reexamining that leans into a fresh political appetite with GOP control of Washington. House Oversight Chair James Comer is returning to his probe of the former president's mental fitness in an entirely new landscape after a recent book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson put Joe Biden's physical and mental decline back in the spotlight. Comer told CNN he is in the process of scheduling key interviews with Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, and other senior aides who had all rebuffed his efforts last Congress. Beyond the five initial interviews from Biden's orbit, the Republican Chairman told CNN he wants to look at the executive orders Biden signed in his last six months in office and use of the autopen. In the weeks immediately after Biden's disastrous 2024 debate performance that unraveled his presidential campaign and upended the Democratic party, Comer requested to interview Biden's doctor and subpoenaed three senior Biden aides to discuss their roles in the Biden White House, which never materialized. Now, Comer said in an interview with CNN, 'it is a whole different environment.' At the time of his 2024 interview requests, Comer's impeachment inquiry into the Biden family's business dealings had fallen apart and the Biden administration felt no incentive to comply with the House Oversight Committee. Probing Biden's decline now, Comer says, will be a lot easier than trying to convince his colleagues of an alleged Biden family foreign influence peddling scheme, which even Comer conceded was difficult to do, particularly in a minute or less on Fox News. Republicans failed to uncover evidence to support their core allegations against the president, and lacked the votes in their divided, narrow majority last Congress to impeach the president. 'The money laundering and the shell companies, the average American couldn't understand that. I mean, that was hard to understand,' Comer told CNN. 'You know, I did not do a good job explaining that.' But with his investigation into Biden's mental and physical decline, Comer said, 'people see a president that clearly is in decline. They saw it in the debate.' Democrats sought to dismantle the Republican-led 11 month impeachment inquiry into Biden last Congress at every turn. Comer told CNN that although those Democrats aren't jumping at the opportunity to cooperate now, he does not see them as being obstructive either. 'I take that as a step in the right direction,' he told CNN. Tapper and Thompson's book documents how Biden, his closest aides and his family forged ahead with the former president's doomed 2024 reelection bid despite signs of his physical and mental decline. In a previous statement to CNN, a Biden spokesman criticized the book, saying that evidence shows that 'he was a very effective president.' Former Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who launched a long-shot challenge to Biden and was outspoken about his concerns over the former president's age, told CNN he did not think there needed to be an investigation on Capitol Hill at this point into Biden's fitness as president. 'This case already went to trial, the jury of American voters convicted the party of the accused, and handed out the harshest political punishment possible-losing the single most consequential election in modern history,' Phillips told CNN. Instead, Phillips called on Biden to authorize his physician to disclose his health file and condition under oath. 'Only if the former president refuses, or if questioning uncovers possible criminal activity, should an investigation be initiated,' Phillips added. Biden was recently diagnosed with an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer.
Politico
12 minutes ago
- Politico
Ukrainian delegation to brief senators amid Russia sanctions push
A Ukrainian delegation is set to brief U.S. senators Wednesday as lawmakers weigh a sweeping sanctions bill targeting Russia and its biggest energy customers, China and India. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who told POLITICO he organized the meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said all 100 senators were invited to attend the closed-door session. 'It's a pivotal moment in Ukraine — and crunch time for the Senate on this bill,' said Blumenthal, noting that the legislation now has 82 co-sponsors, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. The visiting delegation, he told POLITICO, includes Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Serhii Boyev, is traveling with Yermack. The sanctions package from Blumenthal and Graham is designed to increase pressure on Russia's wartime economy by targeting countries that buy oil and gas — a move Blumenthal said could be a 'game changer.' He also pointed to recent long-range drone attacks deep inside Russia — dubbed 'Operation Spiderweb' — as evidence of Ukraine's agility and resolve. Those strikes, he said, counter 'a false narrative that Ukraine is losing the war,' and could shift momentum in Washington in favor of increasing aid for Ukraine.'They can strike air bases 4,000 miles from Ukraine; They can hit anywhere,' Blumenthal said. 'Just in the skill and audacity of these attacks, it will rank with the United States raid on Osama bin Laden and the Israeli pager operation as one of the great military achievements in recent years.' Blumenthal said the White House remains hesitant to support the sanctions bill, but the battlefield momentum could sway President Donald Trump and skeptical lawmakers. 'Events will move the White House — and maybe some of the president's friends here,' he said, referring to Graham. 'Congress can … move ahead. [Trump] doesn't have to support it.'
CNN
17 minutes ago
- CNN
‘It is a whole different environment': Republicans revisit key Biden investigations with new momentum
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to interview former Hunter Biden special counsel David Weiss behind closed doors on Friday, two sources familiar with the interview told CNN, as part of a broader Republican effort to revisit previous probes into the Biden family that stalled last Congress but are gaining new momentum now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. The scheduled interview, which could still be moved, would be the second time the Republican-led panel will interview Weiss about his work as Republicans continue to probe whether the investigation was hampered by political interference. Weiss has still never testified publicly about his six-year criminal probe into the president's son, which included three convictions, but was ultimately short-circuited as a result of the former president's unconditional pardon of his son. House Judiciary Republicans have long wanted to call Weiss, the Trump-appointed US attorney, back for questioning after his first closed-door interview in 2023. Committee Republicans were also able to finally secure interviews with two Department of Justice tax division prosecutors involved in the Hunter Biden probe who they had been aggressively pursuing for months, one of the sources familiar told CNN. The Justice Department is working with Weiss to provide access to documents he may need for his interview, a person briefed on the matter said. Any delays in getting access to documents would be a scheduling issue and the ability to have personnel who can oversee it, the person briefed on the matter said. It's not the only Biden investigation Republicans are reexamining that leans into a fresh political appetite with GOP control of Washington. House Oversight Chair James Comer is returning to his probe of the former president's mental fitness in an entirely new landscape after a recent book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson put Joe Biden's physical and mental decline back in the spotlight. Comer told CNN he is in the process of scheduling key interviews with Biden's White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, and other senior aides who had all rebuffed his efforts last Congress. Beyond the five initial interviews from Biden's orbit, the Republican Chairman told CNN he wants to look at the executive orders Biden signed in his last six months in office and use of the autopen. In the weeks immediately after Biden's disastrous 2024 debate performance that unraveled his presidential campaign and upended the Democratic party, Comer requested to interview Biden's doctor and subpoenaed three senior Biden aides to discuss their roles in the Biden White House, which never materialized. Now, Comer said in an interview with CNN, 'it is a whole different environment.' At the time of his 2024 interview requests, Comer's impeachment inquiry into the Biden family's business dealings had fallen apart and the Biden administration felt no incentive to comply with the House Oversight Committee. Probing Biden's decline now, Comer says, will be a lot easier than trying to convince his colleagues of an alleged Biden family foreign influence peddling scheme, which even Comer conceded was difficult to do, particularly in a minute or less on Fox News. Republicans failed to uncover evidence to support their core allegations against the president, and lacked the votes in their divided, narrow majority last Congress to impeach the president. 'The money laundering and the shell companies, the average American couldn't understand that. I mean, that was hard to understand,' Comer told CNN. 'You know, I did not do a good job explaining that.' But with his investigation into Biden's mental and physical decline, Comer said, 'people see a president that clearly is in decline. They saw it in the debate.' Democrats sought to dismantle the Republican-led 11 month impeachment inquiry into Biden last Congress at every turn. Comer told CNN that although those Democrats aren't jumping at the opportunity to cooperate now, he does not see them as being obstructive either. 'I take that as a step in the right direction,' he told CNN. Tapper and Thompson's book documents how Biden, his closest aides and his family forged ahead with the former president's doomed 2024 reelection bid despite signs of his physical and mental decline. In a previous statement to CNN, a Biden spokesman criticized the book, saying that evidence shows that 'he was a very effective president.' Former Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips, who launched a long-shot challenge to Biden and was outspoken about his concerns over the former president's age, told CNN he did not think there needed to be an investigation on Capitol Hill at this point into Biden's fitness as president. 'This case already went to trial, the jury of American voters convicted the party of the accused, and handed out the harshest political punishment possible-losing the single most consequential election in modern history,' Phillips told CNN. Instead, Phillips called on Biden to authorize his physician to disclose his health file and condition under oath. 'Only if the former president refuses, or if questioning uncovers possible criminal activity, should an investigation be initiated,' Phillips added. Biden was recently diagnosed with an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer.
