Texas Legislature approves $8.5 billion boost for public schools after years of stagnant funding
The Texas House on Thursday gave the final stamp of approval to legislation authorizing roughly $8.5 billion in funding for public schools, sending the bill to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk where it is soon expected to become law.
Final passage of House Bill 2, which will give schools additional money for teacher and staff salaries, educator preparation, special education, safety requirements and early childhood learning, comes on the heels of extensive negotiations between the House and Senate over how the final version of the bill would look.
Abbott has already said he intends to sign the bill, a notable difference from two years ago when he and the Legislature withheld billions from public schools following a failed attempt to create a private school voucher program. This year, lawmakers vowed to approve vouchers and new public school funding in tandem. The Legislature finalized the education finance package nearly a month after vouchers officially became law.
The new dollars in HB 2 will allow school districts to begin making a dent in some of their long-standing challenges — a laundry list of items that includes reversing budget deficits, providing raises to full-time employees and keeping up with rising operational costs.
HB 2 will provide districts with a $55 per-student increase to their base funding — a number short of the $395 per student hike proposed by the House earlier in the session and far less than the roughly $1,300 school officials said they needed to keep up with inflation. That base funding, known as the basic allotment, provides districts the most flexibility to address the range of needs on their campuses, from salaries and maintenance to instructional materials and athletics.
In place of a significant boost to the basic allotment, the bill will give districts $45 per student that they can only use to increase the salaries of school counselors, librarians, nurses and other support staff. The bill also grants schools $106 per student to pay costs associated with transportation, insurance, utilities and hiring retired educators, which has become more common as schools struggle to fill teacher vacancies.
HB 2 raises educator pay, which represents more than $4 billion of the proposal's overall funding. To do so, the bill dictates:
* Teachers with three to four years of experience in school districts with 5,000 or fewer students will receive a $4,000 raise, while those with five or more years of teaching on their resume will earn $8,000.
* Teachers with three to four years of experience in school districts with more than 5,000 students will earn a $2,500 raise, while those with five or more years of experience will receive $5,000.
Furthermore, HB 2 includes funding for an expansion of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a state program that awards raises to educators who demonstrate that they have improved their students' academic outcomes — currently about 6% of teachers.
The bill also would overhaul Texas' special education funding system to account for the individual needs of each student; establish a compensation system for educator preparation and mentorship programs; set aside money for schools to better identify learning difficulties among the state's youngest students and fund prekindergarten services; and increase the money districts receive for safety upgrades.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
41 minutes ago
- Politico
All noisy on the Western solar panel front
Presented by the Stop the Oil Shakedown Coalition. With help from Alex Nieves and Timothy Cama SOLAR WARS: There's enough heat behind California's long-simmering rooftop solar fight that it's boiling over on two fronts this week. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments from both sides on whether regulators broke the law when they slashed rooftop solar credits for new customers in 2022. At the same time, assemblymembers have a Friday deadline to pass (or not) a controversial legislative proposal to reduce the payments for legacy rooftop solar customers. The multipronged fight shows just how entrenched the two camps are — with rooftop solar advocates allying with builders and real estate agents on one side and utilities with labor unions and ratepayer advocates on the other — and just how willing they are to take their arguments to as many venues as possible. It's a fight that's likely to continue, given that the Supreme Court appears poised to rule narrowly — and perhaps not even on the policy debate itself. Instead, the Supreme Court's clerk and executive officer, Jorge Navarrete, asked lawyers last month to focus on how much the judicial branch should give deference to the California Public Utilities Commission when reviewing its various decisions. A lower court had previously cited deference to the CPUC — one of the rare state agencies created by the California Constitution itself — to reject a lawsuit by environmental groups that sought to restore the rooftop solar subsidies. For the environmental groups, the focus on deference is now an opportunity to take their fight to the agency itself, which some see as too cozy with the investor-owned utilities it regulates. 'Already, there's a gap in checks and balances on the commission,' said Roger Lin, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which is bringing the lawsuit against the CPUC. 'The implications of this case stretch beyond rooftop solar.' The investor-owned utilities, who otherwise argued in support of the CPUC's decision, declined to weigh in on how much the court should defer to the agency in a filing earlier this year. But Attorney General Rob Bonta's office is defending the agency, arguing in a brief that the CPUC deserves deference because of precedent, because of the agency's expertise and because the Legislature has 'repeatedly tasked the Commission with studying the effects of the NEM tariff and revising it as appropriate.' It's timely, then, to point out that the Legislature is currently considering doing part of the commission's work itself. Assemblymember Lisa Calderon's AB 942 would slash the payments to longstanding rooftop solar customers who got spared by the CPUC's 2022 decision to reduce payments solely for new customers. Calderon agreed this week to exempt farms and schools, which is eliminating opposition from farming groups close to some moderate Democrats. She also picked up support from the CPUC's Public Advocates Office, which said the measure could reduce costs for ratepayers without rooftop solar. But it'll come down to the wire: Some progressive Democrats have already peeled off from the bill in committee votes, citing concerns from their constituents with rooftop solar that the bill would break existing contracts. The Supreme Court will start hearing arguments at 9 a.m. on Wednesday (and it will be livestreamed if you want to follow along). AB 942 has until Friday to pass off the Assembly floor. — CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! MUSK MANIA: Elon Musk has finally returned to his roots — and Democrats are loving it. Musk's departure from the White House, where he was once among Trump's top advisers, took an explosive turn Tuesday as the Tesla CEO ripped Republicans' budget megabill on X, calling it a 'disgusting abomination' that will raise the national debt. As we've noted, Musk's company never stopped stumping for California policies like the low-carbon fuel standard, even as Trump promised to unravel the state's regulations and Republicans blamed state officials for high gas prices. The eccentric billionaire was always expected to eventually butt heads with an administration poised to throttle the electric vehicle transition and eliminate clean energy incentives his company has profited greatly from. While the episode shocked Republicans and drew pushback from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democrats could barely hide their excitement, Timothy Cama reports for POLITICO's E&E News. 'I haven't spoke to Elon Musk, I'm not sure what the reasons are for this extraordinary statement, but we're in complete agreement,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. — AN WE HAVE A BEE PROBLEM: California lawmakers are coming to the rescue of one of nature's most important insects: honeybees. The Assembly unanimously approved Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom's bill today to launch a program within the California Department of Food and Agriculture to monitor the health of honeybee populations. AB 1042 would allow the department, when extra funding is available, to provide incentives and grants for health intervention projects to support the state's managed honeybee population. The critical species is responsible for pollinating crops like fruits and tree nuts that underpin the state's agriculture sector and maintaining natural ecosystems, but are dying in large numbers due to climate change, habitat loss, pesticides and other factors. Commercial beekeepers reported an average loss of 62 percent of their bee colonies between June 2024 and February of this year, according to a national survey by Project Apis m. (honeybees' Latin name). — AN RECYCLE THE REDO: Gov. Gavin Newsom told CalRecycle to redo its plastic waste reduction rules in the name of affordability. Now, the lawmakers that passed the law behind the rules say the redo goes against their intent — and that they were the ones who wanted to make recycling affordable to begin with. Twenty-two lawmakers joined Sen. Ben Allen, the author of 2022's SB 54, in a letter to Newsom, CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia and CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller last week. Their goal all along, they write, was to lower costs to cities and ratepayers by making manufacturers responsible for recycling their products. The new rules, they argue, stray from their intent by exempting too much food and medication packaging and not preventing hazardous recycling technologies. A coalition of environmental groups including Oceana and Californians Against Waste also blasted the new rules Monday. 'Getting this right is about more than checking a legislative box,' the letter reads. 'California has an opportunity to lead in the global effort to tackle plastic pollution, but not if vague, watered-down language subverts that very goal.' Who is happy: the California Chamber of Commerce, which is arguing that the new rules are more achievable. Spokesperson John Myers shared a takeaway: 'By fostering a regulatory environment that balances ecological responsibility with economic viability, the state sets a precedent for sustainable innovation of a circular economy.' — CvK TWO STRIKES: It's been a bad week for Sable Offshore Corp.'s oil drilling ambitions. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Donna Geck issued an order Tuesday blocking a waiver granted by the state fire marshal that would allow the Texas-based oil company to restart a crude pipeline off Santa Barbara. That decision comes just days after a different Santa Barbara judge sided with the California Coastal Commission and stopped repairs on the 124-mile pipeline that leaked over 100,000 gallons in 2015. Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center, which sued the fire marshal and Sable, cheered the rulings and used the moment to call out Newsom, who has stayed relatively quiet on the issue. 'At the very least, Governor Newsom should demand that his agencies follow the law and do everything possible to prevent another ecological and economic disaster in our state,' she said. — AN — Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for climate activists worried about the White House: roll up your sleeves and "stop whining.' — Southern California is being hit with a triple whammy of thunderstorms, dry lightning and rip tides. — Underground water supplies in the Colorado River basin are depleting even faster than the river itself, according to a new study based on NASA satellite data.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
North Dakota public health awardees announced, including Langdon hospital
Jun. 3—GRAND FORKS — Several people and a health care facility in northeastern North Dakota will be among those receiving awards later this month at the 40th Annual Dakota Conference on Rural and Public Health in Bismarck. The award recipients will include: * Alan O'Neil, CEO of Unity Medical Center in Grafton, who will receive the Outstanding Rural Health Career Award; * Linda Conneran, of Grand Forks, who has been named Outstanding Rural Health Volunteer of the Year for her work with Hospice of the Red River Valley; * State Rep. Jon Nelson, of Rugby, serving District 14 in the North Dakota House, who has been named Rural Health Legislator of the Year, in recognition of his work, especially, on developing more local behavioral health and addiction services in underserved rural communities during the 2025 legislative session; and * Langdon Prairie Health Clinic and Hospital in Langdon, North Dakota, which will receive the Flex Quality Reporting Award. The outstanding rural and public health advocates will be honored during the Rural and Public Health Award Banquet, which is set for 11:50 a.m. June 18 at the Bismarck Event Center. Tickets for the awards banquet are free for conference participants and $30 for those who are not registered for the conference. Registration is mandatory for those who wish to attend. For more information on obtaining tickets, go to . The Dakota Conference on Rural and Public Health is an opportunity for health care professionals, educators and students to share strategies for sustaining healthy North Dakota communities. In addition to the awards banquet, the conference features workshops, keynote speakers and poster presentations. The conference is a joint effort of the North Dakota Rural Health Association; the North Dakota Public Health Association; Altru Health System; the UND College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines; and the Center for Rural Health at UND.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Advocates push for override of governor's veto on repealing ‘free kill' law
Advocates are pushing state lawmakers to override Gov. Ron DeSantis' veto of a bill to repeal the state's so-called 'free kill' law. The bill would have repealed the controversial law that blocks some families from suing if they lose a loved one to medical negligence. One of those protesting the veto was Daryl Perritt, whose son died from a blood clot six months ago. He blames the doctors and hospital, as well as the state. "Because of this law, I can't require, demand or get any answer as to why they waited nearly four days to perform that surgery. Had they performed the surgery in the first 24 hours or 48 hours, he would be here with me today," Perritt. He and others have fought to have it repealed, and they came close when the Legislature voted in favor of getting rid of the 30-year-old law. But DeSantis vetoed it last week, saying it would increase hiring costs for Floridians and make it harder to hire and retain doctors in the state. But that hasn't stopped Perritt's fight. It fueled it. He spent thousands of dollars on billboards calling out DeSantis and lawmakers who don't support a repeal. The hope is that the Legislature will override the veto. It will take a two-thirds vote in the State House and Senate to do so. Lawmakers have said a veto is up for discussion. They think there may be enough votes in the House but not the Senate. Lawmakers are back in Tallahassee, working on the budget. Perritt will be meeting with lawmakers to tell them how important an override will be. 'I don't need money. I need my son. And since I can't have my son, I need answers. That's all. I just need answers to why my son is dead. I don't think that's too much to ask,' he said. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
