Texas lawmakers on Thursday passed a further revised version of a public school funding bill in second reading and are headed toward approving it in a third and final reading on Friday.
The Legislature’s two chambers for weeks have been haggling over the details of the school funding proposal, House Bill 2, after the measure won near-unanimous support from the House last month.
Led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who serves as the Senate’s president, the upper chamber last week countered the House’s version of the bill with a much more prescriptive approach that would leave school districts with little flexibility to choose how to spend the extra money.
On Thursday evening, the Senate unanimously approved more changes to the bill that will increase its price tag by half a billion dollars, up to about $8.5 billion.
As in the prior Senate counteroffer, the bulk of the bill, $4.2 billion, will go to teacher pay raises. But the version passed on Thursday cut the size of the bonuses teachers would receive based on experience and district size. In rural districts, for example, teachers with more than five years of experience would get an $8,000 pay hike instead of the $10,000 that had been included in the previous iteration.
Thursday’s substitute also adds another $1.3 billion in “Allotment for Basic Costs,” according to a press release from Patrick’s office. That money aims at helping districts cover insurance, utilities and teacher retirement costs that for many districts would have gone unaddressed in the prescriptive Senate proposal.
And it retains a minor $55 increase to the basic allotment, the base unit of funding for public schoolkids in Texas. That would be the first increase to the basic allotment since the pandemic, though it’s a less than 1% increase.
That basic allotment increase also doesn’t represent new spending on school districts, just redirected money from what the state would have given districts for adjusting “golden penny” money.
“The amended legislation reflects constructive input from both chambers and parties, and a shared commitment to delivering historic school funding and teacher pay raises this session,” House Speaker Dustin Burrows said in a prepared statement on Thursday. “We’re grateful for the tireless work and collaboration of those who contributed to these negotiations and look forward to the Senate advancing the House’s top priority across the finish line—delivering a landmark win for Texas students, educators, and families later today.”
Raise Your Hand Texas, a public school advocacy nonprofit, celebrated the legislation as a win for public school advocates in a press release, even as it recognized that the measure still leaves unresolved many other issues for districts.
The bill is set for final consideration today, Friday, May 23.
