Texas officials’ claim that school funding is at an all-time high ignores inflation and temporary federal money

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In their public campaign to create a private school voucher program in Texas, Republican leaders have often countered criticism from people concerned about the challenges facing the state’s public education system by saying school districts receive more than $15,000 for each student.

“Public education funding is at an all-time high. Funding per student is at an all-time high,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during his State of the State address last month, a message that other Republican lawmakers have echoed throughout this year’s legislative session.

But the $15,000 does not fully reflect the dollars districts receive from the state to serve students, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. It includes federal pandemic relief funds that have largely expired and money that districts cannot spend. Adjusted for inflation, per-student funding overall has actually declined in recent years.

In addition, the Tribune’s analysis found that the state's individual contribution to funding for each student had significantly decreased in the last decade until recently, when Texas stepped in to replace lost federal and local dollars. The base amount of money districts receive for every child has also stagnated since 2019. That number remains at $6,160.

School officials have called attention to the hard choices districts all over Texas have had to make — from adopting budget deficits and hiring uncertified teachers to closing schools — as evidence that the state has not invested enough in the education system serving more than 5.5 million children.

The dueling narratives about funding may obscure how much Texas is investing in public education or how school districts have used the resources the Legislature has provided them. The answer to both questions starts with understanding schools’ per-student dollars.

Here’s a breakdown.

What does per-student funding mean? 

When you divide the total state budget for education using the most recent finalized data available from the state ($85.3 billion during the 2022-23 school year) by the number of public school students (about 5.5 million), the result is $15,503 — an all-time high.

That number includes federal, state and local revenue sources. It also factors in more than $900 in temporary federal funds schools received during the COVID-19 pandemic — known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER — which have mostly expired.

School districts use some of the $15,503 per student to cover the costs of student support services, teacher salaries, non-instructional staff and building maintenance, according to a Tribune analysis of budget data. It is also used to pay for things that do not directly go to districts, ranging from services provided by state and federal vendors to the Texas Education Agency’s administrative costs.

Comprehensive data from more recent years have not yet been finalized.

Why do public education advocates dispute the $15,503 number?

The number is not adjusted for inflation — the soaring costs of goods and services, such as electric bills and insurance, that school districts rely on to keep their campuses functioning. When that is taken into account, per-student funding actually decreased from 2021 until at least 2023, according to the Texas Education Agency’s own analysis.

The $15,503 figure also does not reflect how federal, state and local shares of school funding have changed over time.

The state’s individual contribution to total per-student funding, for example, declined between 2014 and 2023 from $4,235 to $4,196. When adjusting for inflation, that amount drops even further, according to the Tribune’s data analysis. Preliminary data show the state has picked up an increasing share in recent years as local and federal funds have declined.

When Texas school districts talk about their funding, they often bring attention to the base amount of money they receive from state and local sources to educate each student — $6,160 — a number referred to as the basic allotment, which has not increased in six years. While much of that funding comes from property taxes and other local sources, it is the state’s responsibility to complement those dollars to ensure that all Texas schools have enough to meet each student’s educational needs.

School districts’ advocacy has focused on raising that amount because it offers them flexibility to address the unique needs of their campuses, as opposed to money they can only use for specific purposes. The allotment reflects what districts receive to educate “the cheapest kid in the state” — that is to say, students with no additional needs, said Paul Colbert, who chaired the Texas House’s Public Education Subcommittee on Budget and Oversight during the 1980s.

On top of their base funding, schools receive additional money for students who are generally more expensive to educate, such as children with disabilities, kids from low-income families and students learning English.

Abbott has criticized the attention on the base figure, saying it mischaracterizes the state’s contributions to public education.

“Those claiming that the state only invests $6,000 per student in funding, which is just the basic allotment, are purposefully peddling misinformation,” said Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, in a statement. “Governor Abbott has provided more funding for public education than any Texas governor and signed into law one of the biggest teacher pay raises in our state’s history. Last session, Governor Abbott worked with the legislature to provide more than $6 billion in new public education funding.”

Still, Texas ranks 38th among states in per-student funding, according to a 2024 report from the National Center for Education Statistics. Schools also missed out on a proposed $7.6 billion funding boost last legislative session — including a base funding increase — which Abbott held hostage when vouchers failed to gain the support needed to pass.

How schools use their base dollars varies by district, but the bulk of it flows toward salaries for educators and support staff. Districts also use the money to pay for essential services and goods, like electricity, insurance and water. Leftover money may fund other necessities like school supplies and building maintenance.

District leaders say the need for a base funding increase has only been exacerbated by, among other things, the loss of federal COVID-19 relief funds and underfunded state requirements.

“Yes, I know that we get the additional funding if it's a special education student, if it's a CTE student, all these additional things,” said Rodrigo Peña, superintendent of the 1,500-student San Diego school district in South Texas. “But the main funding source is coming through the student allotment that, from 2019 to now, has not changed.”

Has Texas provided more funding to public education in recent years? 

Yes, but lawmakers have primarily done so through initiatives and programs that require districts to use the funds in specific ways. The Legislature, for instance, in 2023 made a one-time investment of $1.1 billion in school safety to assist districts with hiring armed officers at each of their campuses. Districts have repeatedly asked the state for more money to fulfill the requirement, saying the costs of doing so exceeded the money provided.

Texas officials in the last decade have also budgeted money to help districts cover the loss of funding from state-mandated property tax cuts. Property taxes are a major source of revenue for public schools.

Lawmakers this session are pushing to increase educator salaries based on their years of experience and through the state’s teacher incentive program; proposing additional funding for school safety to help districts hire armed guards; and trying to narrow districts’ roughly $2 billion special education funding gap. The Texas House has also proposed a relatively modest $220 increase to schools’ basic allotment with no inflation adjustments. The Senate has been reluctant to increase the base funding.

What is the impact of school districts’ current funding levels?

Many districts have adopted budget deficits, which means they are spending money at a faster rate than they receive it. In a recent Texas Association of School Business Officials survey of 190 school districts, nearly 63% said they expected to end the current school year with a deficit budget — an increase from the 42% of districts that reported a deficit the year before.

Campus officials across the state are also closing schools, cutting positions, eliminating programs, increasing class sizes, adopting shorter school weeks and hiring more teachers without formal training — in no small part due to stagnant funding.

Top Texas Republicans attribute some of school districts’ struggles to mismanagement. For example, they have long accused districts of using money that could have benefited teachers and students for administrative salaries.

“It's not so much a more-money problem as much as it's a, ‘Why aren't you letting me spend it as I see fit?’” said Jorge Borrego, the K-12 education policy director at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. “And our point to that is, every time we've given you an increase that gives you discretionary flexibility, you've chosen to keep the status quo.”

But school leaders say they need that flexibility to address their campuses’ needs, which can vary significantly by district.

They use a large portion of the basic allotment to pay for salaries and utilities. Those necessities, along with costs of living, have skyrocketed in recent years while districts’ base funding has remained the same. The state also controls how much schools can increase their tax rates and when they can ask voters to approve such an increase. And schools have to front the costs of underfunded state and federal mandates, like hiring armed guards and providing special education services.

With all that taken into account, current funding levels just do not meet “the basic needs to run programs,” said Denise Morgan, superintendent of the nearly 300-student Campbell school district, east of Dallas.

She added: “It is much more complex than $6,100 versus $15,000.”

Disclosure: Texas Association of School Business Officials (TASBO) and Texas Public Policy Foundation have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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