Angélica Ramsey knows that at any moment she is 72 hours from getting fired. For Ramsey, that’s the life of a superintendent. Before that were to happen, she knows she has unapologetically fought to make sure all students in Fort Worth ISD received access to the education they deserve. She realizes that approach might ruffle some feathers. Ramsey spoke March 8 at the Women’s Policy Forum luncheon about the challenges the school district faces — from reading to teacher support to vouchers — and how the community can come together for the children of Fort Worth. Her talk coincided with International Women’s Day, and she spent some time discussing the power of women in leadership – and her own leadership style in the district these first six months. “Women make stuff happen,” she said. “We’re always going to find a way. We don’t quit. We work with people and we do things with people, not to them. We shine when we bring others along and we champion for other women, because we understand that we shouldn’t be fighting for small crumbs, because if we band together we can do so much more.” She has a big task ahead of her. Enrollment in Fort Worth ISD is declining — which has a direct impact on funding the district receives — data on reading scores show children falling behind, teachers are feeling burnt out and the state legislature is expected to call a special session to push vouchers through, which would also have a direct impact on the district. view article

On Thursday, April 6, the Texas House of Representatives will vote on the budget, a sprawling document that spells out the state’s funding priorities for the next two years. To understand the big picture of the budget process, start with our infographic on the two-year Texas budget cycle. For more detail, the Texas Senate Research Center’s Budget 101 is a great resource. The budget originates each session with agencies’ requests for appropriations, after which the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) reviews those requests and prepares a draft bill for the House and Senate budget-writing committees, where they each take on lives of their own. The budget is the only bill the Legislature must pass each session. At this point, we’re over halfway through the 88th Legislative Session, and both the House and Senate have prepared their draft bills – similar but different. The Senate’s version of the budget bill remains pending in the Senate Finance Committee with an expected vote in mid-April, after which the bill will advance to the full Senate. view article

On Thursday, April 6, the Texas House of Representatives will vote on the budget, a sprawling document that spells out the state’s funding priorities for the next two years. To understand the big picture of the budget process, start with our infographic on the two-year Texas budget cycle. For more detail, the Texas Senate Research Center’s Budget 101 is a great resource. The budget originates each session with agencies’ requests for appropriations, after which the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) reviews those requests and prepares a draft bill for the House and Senate budget-writing committees, where they each take on lives of their own. The budget is the only bill the Legislature must pass each session. At this point, we’re over halfway through the 88th Legislative Session, and both the House and Senate have prepared their draft bills – similar but different. The Senate’s version of the budget bill remains pending in the Senate Finance Committee with an expected vote in mid-April, after which the bill will advance to the full Senate. view article

Analysis: The education job market is about to do a dramatic U-turn, with the hiring sprees of recent years set to come to a screeching halt For several years there have been lots of available jobs in school districts. Employees could take a year off and, with all the openings, take comfort in the knowledge that districts would always be hiring if and when they wanted to come back. But those days are over. Thinking of quitting in the next few months or years? Think twice. Because odds are you’ll have a tough time finding another education job in the next several years. That’s because the job market for teachers is about to do a U-turn with the hiring spree of the last few years set to stall out before coming to a screeching halt at the start of the 2024 school year. view article

Midland ISD expenditures for the 2023-24 school year are expected to have risen by 107.13% since the 2016-17 year, according to information from Tuesday’s Midland ISD budget workshop. The district showed that expenditures are budgeted to rise to $473.854 million during the upcoming school year. That total is a $33 million year-over-year increase (compared to $440.291 million in 2022-23). The district also showed the increase is greater than $245 million compared to 2016-17 (when total expenditures were $228.77 million). view article

Waiting on the Texas Legislature didn’t make sense for Fort Worth ISD. Lawmakers came down to the wire and failed to make any significant changes to school funding, which initially appeared to get a boost because of the state’s nearly $33 billion surplus. Fort Worth ISD’s 2023-24 budget is moving forward without betting on any changes from the state. Officials plan to shift some money to fund major purchases that likely would have been covered through a potential bump in state funding. view article

As a final budget decision approaches before the next school year begins, Carroll ISD may raise the cost of its bus passes in the 2023-24 school year, which could increase revenue for the district. Assistant Superintendent for Financial Services David Johnson presented the different price options and their potential revenue for the district on June 5. view article

The conservative, gun-toting superintendent of Fort Davis Independent School District is fed up: “I'm not patient enough to spend time with assholes in Austin, and I'm not rich enough to buy any votes.” exas doesn’t have a mile-high city, but Fort Davis comes close at 4,892 feet. The tiny unincorporated town is nestled in the foothills of the Davis Mountains, where bears and mountain lions and elk stalk among pine-forested sky islands. Fort Davis is the seat of Jeff Davis County, whose population of 1,900 is spread among 2,265 square miles, 50 percent bigger than Rhode Island. The sparsely populated desert country of Mongolia has nearly seven times the population density of Jeff Davis County. Odessa, the nearest city to Fort Davis, is two and a half hours away. The state Capitol is six and a half. view article

Two days on the job, and the new superintendent of the Houston Independent School District is already making big changes. Employees from more than two dozen schools just learned they will have to re-apply for their jobs. New Superintendent Mike Miles is calling his plan the "New Education System." view article

The Tax Information Survey (TIS) for the 2022–2023 school year will be open for data submission June 1, 2023, and will close at midnight on August 31, 2023. If your district does not submit the survey by the deadline, your district’s state funding for the 2022–2023 school year could be adversely affected. Please do not submit any tax data related to the upcoming 2023 tax year (2023–2024 school year). The TIS is not applicable to charter schools. view article

As Conroe ISD braces for surging enrollment numbers when classes resume in August, trustees will discuss $1.9 billion in November bond proposals for new schools and renovations at its June workshop. Chris McCord, assistant superintendent of operations, presented capacity numbers to the board that said showed no sign of leveling off during a May 16 meeting. CISD enrollment is expected to reach 73,394 students when school starts Aug. 9. The district now has about 71,000 students. view article

Employees working for the Canutillo Independent School District will receive a pay raise next school year. The Canutillo Independent School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday night approved a compensation package for the 2023-24 school year that includes a 5 percent salary increase for teachers and a 3 percent pay hike for all other employees. view article

Teacher and staff salaries in Hutto ISD will go up at least 3% across the board in the 2023-24 school year. The district board of trustees approved a compensation plan for the 2023-24 school year at a May 24 meeting. The plan includes 3% raises for all pay groups and adjusts pay scales for teachers and staff to align more closely with market standards. view article

Ahead of the upcoming school year, several districts are looking to attract new teachers by increasing salaries. The budget decisions come as state lawmakers fight over school choice and teacher pay at the Capitol. Several districts are waiting to see what, if anything, the legislature requires before setting salary schedules. Others will be finalizing budgets over the coming months. view article

The proposal would leave billions of anticipated tax revenue untouched at a time when the state has more money coming in than lawmakers are constitutionally allowed to spend.  Texas House and Senate budget writers have struck a deal on a $321.3 billion two-year spending plan that takes advantage of a historic cash windfall to invest unprecedented amounts of money into tax cuts, mental health, state parks, colleges and universities, the state’s energy grid, broadband and water infrastructure, according to documents made public Thursday. view article

Advocates for House Bill 5 said Texas needs a replacement for the defunct Chapter 313 program to maintain an economic advantage over other states. Business lobbyists and school district officials are working to persuade Texas lawmakers to establish a new corporate welfare program. House Bill 5 by State Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) would replace a controversial economic incentive program known as Chapter 313 that expired at the end of last year after lawmakers declined to renew it in 2021. Although the state is no longer processing applications for the program, there are 897 Chapter 313 agreements in effect throughout the state, around a third of which were finalized just last year, according to a representative from Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office. These agreements allow businesses that fund new projects meeting certain criteria to receive an abatement—or reduction—of their school district property tax liability for 10 years or more in exchange for bringing jobs to the community where the project is located. view article

Navasota ISD has announced more salary increases for the 2023-2024 school year. This time, it’s for the district’s support staff. Instructional aides, secretaries, LVNs, maintenance personnel, and child nutrition staff will receive an 18% salary increase for the upcoming school year. Cindy Martin is the administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent of operations and is excited to be a part of that group. view article

Spring ISD students living within 2 miles of their campus could become ineligible to ride the school bus in the 2024-25 school year as district officials consider $11.7 million in budget cuts ahead of an anticipated decrease in federal funding. Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, program in response to pandemic-related educational challenges. The program has boosted districts’ revenue by millions of dollars through a series of three acts. Spring ISD was allocated more than $100 million in the latest round of funding, approved in 2021. view article

The Arlington Independent School District will give all of its workers pay raises in a few months. On Thursday, the school board approved a 4% salary increase for the next school year. Teachers, librarians, and support staff will all see bigger paychecks. view article

Spring ISD students living within 2 miles of their campus could become ineligible to ride the school bus in the 2024-25 school year as district officials consider $11.7 million in budget cuts ahead of an anticipated decrease in federal funding. Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, program in response to pandemic-related educational challenges. The program has boosted districts’ revenue by millions of dollars through a series of three acts. view article

In a historic move, the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday night to give teachers and staff a "significant" pay raise. The decision was voted on during a regular meeting. This would give a $4 wage increase to classified employees across the board and a 7% increase for teachers, librarians, counselors, curriculum coaches, instructional coaches, and special education-related services. view article

The Lufkin ISD superintendent reveals that an employee of the company that was contracted to build a special needs playground embezzled the funds paid by the school district. In a special meeting of the LISD board, Superintendent Lynn Torres shared that the federal grant funds obtained to build a special needs playground had been stolen by an employee of the company the district contracted. view article

Plano ISD aims to increase teacher compensation for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. At a Plano ISD board of trustees meeting last week, the district’s human resources team presented some proposed compensation increases and budgetary impacts. According to the human resources team, 86% of the district’s budget goes to staff. With the district moving to a 186-day year in 2023, teachers will receive a $313 daily rate, as opposed to its $311 daily rate, not including stipends. District staff proposed a 3% raise for all teachers and staff, a higher bilingual stipend from $4,000 to $5,000, a special education stipend of $2,000 and a structured special education stipend increase from $3,000 to $3,500. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to call state lawmakers back to Austin this summer if they don’t approve private school vouchers for millions of Texas students before the close of the session May 29. The announcement comes as the governor is rushing to bring Republicans together on a plan to subsidize private education in the session’s final weeks. Despite his campaigning, the idea is still opposed by many rural Republicans in the House whose districts depend on public school funding. A House committee met early Monday to consider a revamped voucher plan, which would make the subsidies available to students who receive special education resources and those in F-rated districts. That’s a much narrower pool of eligible students than the one in an earlier Senate version — about 800,000 students instead of 5.5 million. view article

HOUSTON, Texas – Spring Branch ISD will hold a board meeting Monday to discuss the district’s budget issues. The meeting, which will be held at the district’s headquarters located at 955 Campbell, will be another plea for lawmakers to increase funding for basic allotment. The Texas Education Agency describes the basic allotment as, “the legislatively mandated apportionment of funds from the general revenue funds that go to each school district to provide a basic level of education for the district’s residents.” view article

A Grayson County school district is awash in red ink as the school year draws to a close. The Tioga Independent School District received an accredited-warning status from the Texas Education Agency's Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, or their FIRST score, and the district needs to improve its finances. One of the primary causes of the district's deficit is an over-projection of enrollment numbers. view article

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas House of Representatives on Thursday voted to prohibit state money from funding private school vouchers or education savings accounts. The move is a setback to one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priorities to provide “school choice” with state-funded private school tuition subsidies. The House approved State Rep. Abel Herrero’s amendment to the state budget on a bipartisan 86-52 vote. The amendment prohibits the budget from funding “a school voucher, including an education savings account, tax credit scholarship program, or a grant or other similar program through which a child may use state money for non-public primary or secondary education.” “These are public funds for public schools as is outlined and stated specifically in the Texas Constitution,” Rep. Herrero said. “And for that, members, please stick with our public school teachers, our neighborhood schools, and our public charter schools and vote for this amendment.” view article

Fort Worth ISD likely won’t have a balanced budget for the 2023-24 school year, according to officials. The school board on May 9 received its first look at the district’s next budget. Numbers are preliminary and could shift depending on how the Texas Legislature changes school finance laws and certified property values from the Tarrant Appraisal District, which are expected in late July. view article

Republican state lawmakers in recent months have ramped up programs that make public funds available for parents to spend on their children’s private education. This year alone, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have passed bills that establish or lay the groundwork for universally accessible education savings accounts—public funds that parents can use on a wide variety of private education-related expenses, including tuition, classroom supplies, transportation to private education providers, and homeschooling expenses. view article

Last week, 11 DFW-area school districts (including Denton ISD), came together to urge residents to contact state legislators about school funding. With less than a month left in the current legislative session, school district officials from across the area spoke at a joint press conference on the budget being negotiated by state lawmakers, which they say will leave Texas public schools $7 billion short of what is needed to cover inflation since 2019, according to a Denton ISD news release. view article

The Houston Independent School District board met Thursday to discuss potential cuts to the district’s $2.2 billion budget as it faces a growing deficit and a looming takeover by the Texas Education Agency. Superintendent Millard House II has already walked back plans to slash school budgets by roughly $40 million after an outcry from the Board of Trustees, which insisted against campus-level cuts. That leaves cuts of just $15.3 million to the HISD central office with the district facing a projected $118 million deficit that could rise to $258 million by the 2024-2025 school year, as enrollment drops and pandemic-related funds dry up. Most of those $15.3 million in savings would come from closing unfilled positions. The district had previously proposed reducing small school subsidies and high school allotments, along with returning to an attendance-based school funding policy that was suspended due to COVID-19, before those suggestions were nixed by the board. view article

Whitewright ISD has been able to pay off the outstanding balances on all student lunch accounts from community donations. Whitewright ISD Child Nutrition Director, Donna Lucas, said at the beginning of April, the district’s former Elementary Cafeteria Manager, Rita Ballard, passed away. Ballard’s classmates created a fundraiser in her name to continue taking care of her students, naming it “Mrs. Rita’s Angel Lunch Program”. view article

Teachers in Navasota ISD will receive a wage increase after it was approved unanimously by the school board. Monday it was announced that a wage increase will allow first-year teachers to earn a salary of 50 thousand dollars. Teachers that have been working for the district for over 25 years will make a salary of $67,500. view article

A grassroots coalition of school districts and public school advocates sounded a “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” alarm today to urge parents, teachers, district team members and other supporters to contact state lawmakers about providing more funding for Texas public schools. While there is only one month left in the Texas legislative session, there is still time for lawmakers to allocate more of the state’s record $32.7 billion surplus to public education. Supporters of public schools are encouraged to take 15 seconds to access this link that will send a request to their individual state lawmakers seeking more funding for public education. view article

School districts across Central Texas are banding together and asking the state for more money. “School districts across the state are struggling,” said Ed Ramos, Austin ISD chief financial officer. This comes at a time when teachers continue to leave the industry and some school districts are having to make major cuts. view article