FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2025
CONTACT: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org
Small increase to the basic allotment means underfunded schools will continue to struggle.
AUSTIN, Texas – Today, the Texas House of Representatives gave initial approval to House Bill 2, its attempt at a school finance bill. Both the process and the substance of the bill leave a lot to be desired. Members were only given hard copies of district-by-district runs two nights before the debate, and the public was left entirely in the dark about the implications for their local schools. Despite hours and hours of public testimony begging for more resources for chronically funding schools, Chairman Buckley landed on only a $395 increase in the basic allotment – which, when adjusted for inflation, doesn’t even bring funding back to where it was in 2019 when lawmakers last passed a school finance bill.
House Bill 2 will give public school districts a little more ground to stand on, but it doesn’t do enough to fill the holes the state has dug them into. Even with this additional funding, the state is looking at another two years of potential campus closures, layoffs, and budget cuts between now and the 2027 legislative session. This is a crisis of the state’s making, and it will take more than a one-time investment in our schools every five to six years to make things right.
“With the first increase to their base state funding since 2019, our public schools can breathe a small sigh of relief. Emphasis on the small. The per-student funding increase is far below what is needed to make our schools whole, and I urge lawmakers to use their remaining time in session to reallocate funds wherever they can to remedy this fact,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. “That said, I do want to applaud the bill authors for incorporating feedback and making some improvements, most importantly raising the amount of a basic allotment increase that must go to employee pay raises. This is vital to keeping not only our teachers in the classroom but to retaining the whole village of people who make our schools run, from counselors to cafeteria workers to custodians.”
###
Texas AFT represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.