South San Antonio Independent School District will tap into the state’s “disaster pennies” program to unlock $3 million in their budget for one-time expenses. Taken over by the state in February after a Texas Education Agency investigation found the district’s elected board members mismanaged funds and violated governing procedures, the Southside district faces a multi-million dollar budget deficit during a state legislative session that’s been slow to pass a public school funding bill.  view article

Families who qualify for free preschool could use state education savings accounts, known as school vouchers, to pay for highly-rated private preschools.  Signed into law for the first time in Texas history earlier this month, the ESA program allocates $1 billion state dollars for eligible families to cover the cost of private school tuition, therapy and other education-focused costs.  Some families could also use school vouchers to pay for private early education for children age 4, a positive step in addressing early childhood needs, said Mark Larson, executive director or the San Antonio-based early education advocacy group Early Matters. view article

Canutillo Independent School District's board received a mix of good and concerning news regarding its financial situation during a meeting on Thursday night. The district's fiscal outlook has improved slightly compared to a few weeks ago, but challenges remain. view article

Some new Dallas ISD school employees are likely to see pay bumps as trustees raised its minimum wage and starting teacher salary in its 2025-26 budget. Trustees approved a roughly $1.9 billion budget Thursday night that raises staff minimum wages to $17 an hour and offers $64,000 to beginning teachers. Seven trustees voted yes, with Byron Sanders and Joyce Foreman abstaining. view article

Over the past several years, the Ysleta Independent School District board has invested heavily in our staff — raising salaries and providing stipends to recognize their hard work. And just this month, the district took serious steps toward restoring fiscal stability. We approved the sale of two vacant properties, launched a voluntary resignation incentive projected to save $15 million, and identified over $10 million in projected spending cuts. view article

There is big change coming to Austin ISD as the district is beginning the process to close and consolidate schools. The district said the move comes after six years without an increase in school funding from the state, as well as declining enrollment. There were 74,645 students in Austin ISD in the 2021-22 school year and in the 2023-24 school year there were 73,707. view article

Judson Middle School, Candlewood Elementary School and Franz Leadership Academy will remain open for the time being. Board members in the Judson Independent School District passed motions on Wednesday night to not close the campuses. Families and students expressed strong feelings about the potential school closures. The district cited financial hardships and declining enrollment as reasons for considering the closures. view article

Seven teachers in the Socorro Independent School District who were initially laid off as part of budget cuts have been reinstated. The school board unanimously approved their contracts during a meeting on Tuesday night. These positions were among the 43 that the district had cut earlier this month to address a $38 million budget deficit. view article

Fort Worth ISD trustees are set to take their first major step toward shrinking the district’s number of schools to better reflect its declining enrollment.  During its May 20 meeting, the school board is expected to consider a plan outlining 14 school closures over the next four years. If approved, the 14 schools would join four other campuses that trustees previously slated for closure. view article

Fort Bend ISD is built for more than 100,000 students, but recent demographic projections show enrollment stagnating around 80,000 students until 2034, an outlook that could force school closures to save money, officials told a full boardroom Monday. Closing or consolidating some of the 19 elementary campuses with less than 600 students could save the district $13 million, auditors said. view article

Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Marty Crawford presented an update on the 89th Legislative Session to the Board of Trustees Monday, which included conversation on school finance, school vouchers, and more. The Senate’s school finance proposal would increase the basic allotment by $55 per student, hundreds less than the version that passed the House. view article

Liberty Hill ISD has reduced its projected budget shortfall for this fiscal year and is nearing a balanced budget for FY 2025-26. The update comes after the district has applied millions of dollars in current and planned budget cuts amid growing financial concerns. view article

The proposal would shift the operation of the lottery to a different agency for a two-year trial period. view article

Senators will hold a hearing Thursday on their counterproposal to the House's school funding bill. House Democrats and public education advocates have criticized the upper chamber for not moving faster to advance the legislation. view article

The Canutillo Independent School District is among the districts in the El Paso area struggling with a budget deficit, leading the district to contemplate significant reductions. At a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Canutillo ISD board officials are expected to finalize decisions on addressing the deficit, which the district attributes to inadequate state funding, the pandemic, and increased service demands. view article

Austin Independent School District says it will consolidate schools starting in the 2026-27 school year to avoid deeper budget cuts. In an online release, the district says resources are spread too thin, leaving schools under-resourced. view article

Officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District say that closing and consolidating more than a dozen campuses would save the district millions of dollars over the next five years, allowing them to redirect more money toward academic priorities. District officials presented a proposed five-year facilities plan at a school board meeting Tuesday. The plan includes the closure and consolidation of 18 small and under-enrolled schools, including S.S. Dillow Elementary School, which is scheduled to close this summer due to structural issues.

Fort Worth ISD is in the middle of assembling the final pieces of its 2025-26 school year budget.  Trustees are expected to receive an update on the budget during their May 13 workshop meeting, Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria recently told the school board.   Here’s what you need to know about the financial document, which will focus on jump-starting literacy efforts across the district: view article

Fort Worth ISD is in the middle of assembling the final pieces of its 2025-26 school year budget. Trustees are expected to receive an update on the budget during their May 13 workshop meeting, Chief Financial Officer Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria recently told the school board.   Here’s what you need to know about the financial document, which will focus on jump-starting literacy efforts across the district: view article

As Cy-Fair ISD trustees prepare to approve a budget for fiscal year 2025-26 this June, district leaders said they could struggle to maintain competitive salaries due to the limited funding they receive from the state. CFISD Chief Financial Officer Karen Smith broke down the district’s budget outlook at the May 5 board meeting, including a comparison of neighboring districts’ teacher salaries and the average amount of revenue they receive from the state based on average student attendance. view article

The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) is considering new strategies to address its financial challenges, as it faces a projected $15 million budget deficit for the upcoming school year. This marks a slight improvement from the previous $17 million shortfall. view article

The Socorro Independent School District's board has officially approved a reduction in force, cutting 43 positions in an effort to address a $38 million budget deficit. The decision, made after months of deliberation, was met with emotional pleas from educators hoping to save their jobs. view article

Houston ISD is two months away from its deadline to finalize next school year's budget, and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said tough decisions are ahead — including cuts to the district's central office. In the district's budget meeting last week, Miles shared his spending proposals with the district's board of managers. They include cuts to nearly every department of the central office, except for the Chief of Staff's office, which may see an increase. view article

A man from Orange pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for stealing from Trinidad Independent School District. Brandon Looney, 39, of Orange, pleaded guilty to theft from a program receiving federal funds and was sentenced to two years in federal prison on Thursday by Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle. view article

Midland ISD will “collapse” a second round of positions at the end of the 2024-25 school year, which includes 28 positions that are central office based. MISD is operating this year under a $41.1 million budget deficit because of the expiration of the state FTG program, which had given MISD tens of millions of dollars annually since 2019. The FTG was set to expire this year, and it was not renewed in the previous legislative session. view article

As school districts across Central Texas begin drafting budgets for the upcoming year, parents in Leander ISD worry about the possibility of school closures. The idea surfaced during recent school board meetings, as trustees seek ways to address Leander ISD's financial challenges. In February, Leander ISD announced a $34 million budget deficit. Since then, district leaders have taken steps to reduce costs, including cutting approximately 200 jobs and ending the International Baccalaureate program. Still, parents worry about what further budget cuts could mean for the district's schools. view article

Texas Senators passed legislation ending “shared governance” with university faculty senates in Texas’ public higher education institutions on Wednesday. In state universities, “shared governance” is a term where the boards of regents of universities share power with the faculty, who are represented by a faculty senate—or, in the case of the University of Texas-Austin, the faculty council. Regents are accountable to Texans through the governor’s office and the state senate. Members of the faculty senate enjoy no such accountability. State Sen. Brandon Creighton’s (R-Conroe) proposed measure defines the role of faculty senates as advisory only.  view article

Trustees for the San Antonio Independent School District voted Monday evening to give a 4% raise to full-time hourly staff and a 3% raise to teachers and other salaried employees. The raise will boost starting pay for full-time hourly staff to $17 an hour and the starting pay for teachers to $60,000. It also boosts the pay grades for head custodians and some instructional assistants, including assistants who work with special education students that need behavior support. view article

Leander ISD’s projected budget shortfall for fiscal year 2024-25 increased to about $27.3 million in March. “Last month, we were looking at probably ending the fiscal year at about $26.2 million [in] expenditures exceeding revenues. We have updated this information to show it’s about $27.3 [million],” LISD Chief Financial Officer Peter Pape said at the district’s March 27 board of trustees meeting.  What’s going on? A range of variables can affect expenditures and revenues in the budget each month. Pape emphasized that this increase was being conveyed as an update, and it is liable to change moving forward. He said the projections get more and more accurate as the budget cycle progresses view article

While Washington, D.C., is awash with chaos and mass confusion over Trump administration policies gutting the federal government, our state Legislature in Austin is full speed ahead in passing perhaps the biggest boondoggle in Texas history.  I’m referring to school voucher plans that will pump billions of dollars into private education but won’t have a fraction of the promised benefits that Republicans are arguing to pass these bills.  Gov. Greg Abbott is calling the House bills on vouchers the “Texas Two-Step,” which Texas Democrats call a clever marketing label. Here’s what the party is saying about these measures: view article

Judson ISD officials discussed proposed budget cuts with community members in a town hall Thursday evening. This is the second meeting held to find solutions to chip away at a nearly $50 million deficit. After hours of back-and-forth conversation at Thursday night's meeting, there wont be an easy fix. District trustees wrote out a list, showing what meeting attendees want to see stay, or go. One item on that list has been on the minds of districts across Texas: school closures. view article

The lives of some Socorro and Canutillo independent school district employees were upended late last week as they received a piece of paper informing them that their contracts would not be renewed after the end of the school year. Some of those employees who have been laid off include middle and elementary school music teachers from Socorro ISD and registered nurses from Canutillo ISD. Several SISD employees who received the notices Friday declined to comment at this time, saying they were going to first consult with their teacher unions. view article

Voices of concern echoed outside the Northside Independent School District's activity center on Tuesday as students and alumni gathered to protest potential cuts to school programs, including choir. The demonstration aimed to raise awareness about how these cuts could impact educational offerings. Michaela Alvarado, a music education student at Northwest Vista Community College highlighted the schools affected, saying, "Holmes High School, Connally Middle School, Rayburn Middle School, Pat Neff Middle School and Sul Ross Middle School. Those were some of them were full time positions or half time positions." view article

Round Rock ISD board members on June 17 adopted a $467.42 million general operating budget for fiscal year 2021-22. The general operating fund budget includes $444.53 million in revenues and $467.42 million in expenses, creating a deficit in this fund of $17.2 million, RRISD Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Adix said. view article

State lawmakers were prepared for a budget crunch, since the COVID-19 pandemic slashed revenues from sales taxes, energy taxes, and other sources. The question they now face is how to close the shortfall without choking off long-term growth.  The answer is far from clear, but it’s certain to involve cuts to popular programs.  In fact, such cuts are what's expected this session. The state comptroller's office says lawmakers need to close a shortfall of nearly $1 billion in revenues. And Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton of Conroe, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, noted that Gov. Greg Abbott has asked state agencies to reduce budgets by 5%. view article