HOUSTON — In a district-wide letter sent on March 19, Katy ISD Superintendent Dr. Ken Gregorski pointed to a lack of state funding as a challenge the district has faced in forming its budget for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. During an interview with the KHOU 11 Verify Team, the superintendent said the Katy ISD Board of Trustees could pass a budget with a deficit for a second consecutive year.
The KHOU 11 Verify Team looked into two statements the superintendent addresses inside his letter about the district's financial situation.
Katy ISD Superintendent Statements:
- The inaction of our legislature has resulted in the Texas public school seeing no increase in the Basic Allotment since 2019.
- During the recent legislative session of 2023, our lawmakers allocated more than $4 billion for Texas public schools, which has yet to be distributed.
THE QUESTIONS
- Has the basic allotment for public schools changed since 2019?
- Are there 4 billion dollars lawmakers designated for Texas Public schools funding? Has the money been distributed?
THE SOURCES
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Conroe ISD
Fort Bend ISD
Katy ISD
Spring Branch ISD
Tomball ISD
Office of Governor Greg Abbott
Texas AFT
Texas Association of School Administrators
Texas Association of School Boards
Texas Education Agency (T.E.A.)
88th Texas Legislature, Regular Session
THE ANSWERS
1. No, The state legislature has not increased the basic allotment since 2019.
2. Yes, Texas lawmakers have allocated more than $4 billion for Texas public schools, and it has not been distributed
WHAT WE FOUND
In Texas, the state uses the term "basic allotment" to refer to the money given to districts per student. The KHOU 11 Verify Team learned the current $6,160 issued to districts has not increased since 2019. In a report, the Texas Education Agency spells out the basic allotment has changed four times since 2009
BASIC ALLOTMENT
In an interview with the KHOU 11 Verify Team, Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) explains the basic allotment as the first part of public school districts getting money from the state.
"The basic allotment is kind of the first chunk of clay you start with, and the finance formula shapes that pot for different school districts," Talarico said. "By not increasing the basic allotment, by not starting out with a bigger chunk of clay, school districts across the state are not getting the school funding they need to serve the students that we are asking them to serve."
The KHOU 11 Verify Team contacted several school districts across the Houston area about their financial challenges for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
Fort Bend ISD said, "That per-student amount would need to be $7,464 today to have the same spending power as in 2019." Fort Bend ISD is the only district that responded to KHOU 11, saying the district anticipates passing a balanced budget.
BUDGET DEFICITS
School districts across Texas face varying degrees of multi-million dollar deficits. Many districts, including Hull-Daisetta ISD, told the KHOU 11 Verify Team that a healthy portion of their budget goes towards funding the salaries of their districts' employees.
According to Talarico, Texas has $4 billion available for public school funding. Teachers union Texas AFT said the funds were available due to the state's historic $33 billion surplus.
Texas lawmakers during the regular and special legislative sessions ultimately defeated the effort to distribute the $4 billion, because the funds were tied to the passage of Gov. Greg Abbott's school voucher program.
Under the proposed program, private and parochial school tuition costs are partially funded.
During the 88th regular legislative session that started in January 2023, Abbott went on a parent empowerment tour across Texas and even made stops in the Houston area to increase support for school vouchers.
Abbott, who has the power to set the agenda for all special sessions, summoned lawmakers back to the Capitol to tackle topics including the voucher program for the third and fourth special sessions.
By the time the legislature adjourned from the fourth special session on Dec. 5, 2023, the voucher program had failed to pass. The defeat of the voucher program was the result of a bipartisan vote in the House chamber.
According to Talarico, the next opportunity to increase state funding for public schools will be when the legislature meets again on Jan. 14, 2025.
Most school districts in the Houston area will pass their budgets for the upcoming school year before July 1. Conroe ISD and Katy ISD pass their budgets at the end of August.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story, while explaining why the basic allotment claims is true, had an incorrect image of ‘false.’ We have updated it so that the image matches the explanation.