Despite Texas’ record budget surplus, schools face deficits

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Parents of Cy-Fair ISD students criticized state and district leaders this week, frustrated that their schools are some of many facing budget cuts due to widespread deficits after state lawmakers failed to increase basic school funding last year.

“The decisions being made by our governor, senators, TEA Commissioner, and CFISD Board of Trustees are stumping us both academically and inspirationally,” one parent told the board.

Cy-Fair fears they may have to remove nearly 300 staff positions, including teachers, and cut their librarian positions almost in half amid a $138 million deficit. The deficit comes after lawmakers doled out a record $33 billion budget surplus last year without increasing school funding.

Cy-Fair Superintendent Doug Killian said he implores the state to increase funding, but their deficit comes from a combination of factors — including local decisions.

Killian said a two percent decrease in student attendance cost the district $15 million, and their local optional homestead exemption cost them $63 million in property tax revenue.

“All the positions serve a very important and crucial need in our school district. But with that, we still have to make cuts,” Killian said at Monday’s board meeting.

“The community is outraged,” CFISD parent Bryan Henry told Nexstar. “Whether it’s the library, whether it’s paraprofessionals, everyone is concerned about how this is going to impact learning.”

Just down the road, Houston ISD faces a $450 million budget deficit and is considering cuts to staff that assist low-income students with transportation, clothing, and other basic needs.

In Austin, AISD is nearly $30 million short. The cuts are common and widespread among some of the largest districts in Texas.

“This is very frustrating for educators, because we do and we give everything we can, but we are not supported by our state,” President of the Texas State Teachers Association Ovidia Molina said. “We know that we love to be number one in Texas on everything. But the reality is, we’re not number one when it comes to teacher pay… we’re nowhere near number one when it comes to student funding.”

Last legislative session, state lawmakers shot down bills to increase per-student funding by a third and give teachers an across-the-board bonus of $2,000 for urban teachers and $6,000 for rural teachers.

Gov. Abbott and some Republican lawmakers required any school funding increases to come with a plan for state-funded private school subsidies — “education savings accounts” or “school vouchers.” That plan failed to gain enough Republican support in the House, and school funding went down with it.

Now, CFISD parents are calling on the state to step in.

“Every district across Texas needs the legislature and the governor to increase the basic allotment, and ideally doing so would not be tied to the fate of a voucher bill,” Henry said. “There’s a reason that Republicans and Democrats in the House voted against vouchers. They believe that long term it will harm the public school system.

Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, urged Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to use TEA surplus funds to supplement Cy-Fair’s budget.

The district has not yet approved a final plan for budget cuts. Killian said he does not anticipate any changes to funding levels this year. Lawmakers will not meet again to draft a new state budget until January.

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