Texas’ public ed funding boost brings some relief but erodes districts’ independence, school leaders say

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A funding boost to the tune of $8.5 billion would usually be a cause for widespread celebration among Texas public schools. But in the wake of the 2025 legislative session, the mood of district leaders and educators is more lukewarm than triumphant.

Not because they aren’t grateful for new money to raise teacher salaries, improve special education services and make schools safer. It is because Texas lawmakers imposed stricter guardrails on how the state’s more than 1,200 school systems can use the dollars.

The new funding setup marked a drastic departure from the spending flexibility schools have long enjoyed, and for many, the change was the latest indication that state leaders do not trust districts to govern themselves effectively.

“We are a very independent state. The people are very independent. … And yet, that's not the approach they're taking with public education,” said Casey Adams, superintendent of the 170-student Woodson Independent School District, a rural community near Abilene. “Why call us independent school districts if you're not going to give us the local control and ability to do what we need to do? I think everybody I've talked to feels strongly that way.”

Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2 into law last month, the first comprehensive public school funding package to pass the Texas Legislature in six years. The $8.5 billion boost is the largest one-time investment in public schools in recent memory, but it arrived after years of stagnant funding. That includes 2023, when the state invested more narrowly in areas like school safety but left billions more on the table due to the political fallout over private school vouchers, one of the governor’s top legislative priorities. This year, new public education funding was approved weeks after lawmakers greenlit a $1 billion voucher program.

The key components of HB 2, which goes into effect Sept. 1, include boosting teacher pay based on years of experience, school district size and educator performance; incentivizing teachers to get certified while phasing out those who lack formal training; establishing a special education funding system that distributes money based on the intensity of services each school must provide to students with disabilities; and alleviating pressure on districts trying to keep up with rising operational costs and low pay for support staff.

Notably, lawmakers did not significantly increase the base amount of money districts receive to educate each student, otherwise known as the basic allotment. The allotment, which sat at $6,160 per student for the last six years and was increased this year by a modest $55, helps pay for anything from salaries to bus fuel. School leaders argue that heavier investments in that pot of money recognize that their campuses have varying needs and that district officials have the best sense of where funding should go.

But in the time since lawmakers last passed major funding legislation in 2019, state officials have played an outsized role in crafting a public narrative that schools are not prioritizing student achievement, focusing too heavily on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and paying administrators at the expense of teachers and children.

After months of listening to public testimony from Texas public education leaders about their financial challenges — a laundry list of items that includes program cuts and campus closures — lawmakers structured HB 2 in a way that minimizes flexibility and instead narrowly directs funds to the areas they determined were most critical.

They decided to dedicate the largest share of the $8.5 billion infusion to teacher pay. Only a fraction of the funds were set aside to address raises for support staff and skyrocketing operational costs.

School leaders, left with little discretion on how to spend the money, are still early in the process of figuring out exactly how much their campuses will receive, with many having finalized their budgets as of late June. Changes to those spending plans will likely come as the impact of HB 2 becomes clearer. The bill does not catch districts up with ballooning costs since the pandemic, and some early indications suggest it will likely not prevent them from having to make additional cuts. But the money is expected to assist in other ways, some more significant than others.

A teacher in Woodson ISD, the rural district led by Adams, will see about a $20,000 pay raise based on their experience, district size and performance. Flour Bluff ISD, located in the coastal city of Corpus Christi, estimates that HB 2 could cut its $3.2 million property and casualty insurance bill by more than $1 million, helping balance the district’s budget. An official with Central Texas’ Rockdale ISD said the legislation will likely reduce only “a little bit of” the district’s roughly $1 million budget deficit, meaning the school system would still struggle to pay for basic operations without trimming elsewhere.

Boerne ISD, near San Antonio, could yield about $3.8 million in new funding from the legislation, which is about $2 million less than district officials initially hoped for. The difference is a result of changes to how the state compensates districts for lost revenue due to property tax cuts, a major source of income for public schools. After using most of the new money on teacher pay, the district may only have a few hundred thousand left in HB 2 funds to cover other expenses.

Still, Wesley Scott, Boerne ISD’s chief financial and operations officer, believes the bill will do “really good things” for most districts.

“Everybody wants flexibility,” Scott said. “But as it was implemented, it was something that we can certainly work with, even with the funding that we got.”

Chris Whorton, superintendent of Mildred ISD, a rural school district of roughly 830 students, located southeast of Dallas, is particularly grateful for HB 2’s investment of more than $4 billion in public school teachers. In his district, educators with at least three years of experience will get a $4,000 raise, while those with at least five years of experience will earn an $8,000 bump.

But Whorton is concerned that the roughly $250 million reserved for school support staff across Texas is not enough. He estimated that HB 2 will only grant the Mildred school district about $42,000 in new money to distribute across roughly 60 supporting staff members, such as counselors and librarians. That would mean about a $700 raise per employee.

Whorton preferred an earlier version of HB 2 — favored by the Texas House but not the Senate — which many others also championed in part because it provided additional funding for smaller schools and more spending flexibility. He said it would have allowed the district to provide similar raises to teachers and “spread the love to the other employees.”

The version of HB 2 that ultimately passed “was kind of a lukewarm bill,” Whorton added.

Denise Monzingo, superintendent of Rockdale ISD, said she doesn’t think the Legislature trusts school districts to spend their money wisely, and the problem with that is “every district has different issues.”

“When we're told, ‘This has to only be spent on electricity, or gas, or whatever,’ OK, maybe I didn't have an issue with that — we were good there,” Monzingo said. “But, man, I could have used that money to help out with some intervention for my kids. So it's some of that that's frustrating.”

HB 2’s biggest winners are teachers. But some educators said that even though they are grateful to receive pay increases, they were disappointed by lawmakers’ refusal to provide districts more flexible dollars, not to mention state officials’ insistence on providing $1 billion in taxpayer funding to families who home-school or send their kids to private schools. They think that money should have gone to public education.

“I think that that's really, really dangerous when you don't trust leaders in public education to do the best they can for kids,” said Megan Simoneau, an educator of 21 years who teaches high school math in the Leander school district. All that “most teachers, and most principals, and most superintendents are really attempting to do, is do the best they possibly can for the students, and the families, and their communities.”

Julie Waller, an eighth-grade science teacher in Mildred ISD and an educator of 24 years, said she understands why the state is reluctant to give schools more flexibility on how to spend state funds, noting that not all teachers are working for the betterment of the profession.

But the lack of trust can go both ways. In Waller’s case, she is distrustful of promises from the state, saying that each time something positive is set to happen for teachers, additional strings come attached.

“If you've ever seen the movie, ‘Gaslight,’ I love to use that word, because I feel like that,” she said, speaking about her potential $8,000 pay raise from HB 2. “This is good, but I feel like something's going to come in on the back end of it and be like, ‘OK, well, here it is. Now we got to do this.’”

The Legislature’s almost exclusive focus on pay raises for teachers in early versions of HB 2 frustrated Ellen Lemaster.

A special education paraprofessional in the Montgomery school district, northwest of Houston, Lemaster regularly goes into classrooms and provides hands-on support to students with a range of disabilities. Teachers often tell her how grateful they are to have people like her as a resource. Lawmakers’ initial lack of attention toward essential roles like Lemaster’s made her think that they need a deeper understanding of how schools work. But she was appreciative of the final decision to allocate some funding to employees other than teachers.

“At least it's something,” Lemaster said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Corey Weber also finds it difficult to be upset about the additional funding. But the San Antonio school librarian feels it is just as challenging to share in the joy.

“Funding exists in our state budgets,” Weber said. “But the lack of will from our elected officials to fully fund our programmings that I think are important for our school, it is kind of hard to celebrate.”

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