HB 2, which includes $7.7 billion worth of funding for Texas public schools, just passed the Texas House and has been referred to the Education K-16 committee in the Senate, where it is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday.
As proposed by the House, the bill will include an increase in the basic allotment of funds, so each public district in the state will be given $6,555 per student.
The current basic allotment is $6,160 per student, which hasn’t changed since the 2019-20 school year.
In addition, the bill includes an automatic raise for teachers across the state and more funding for special education programs.
The increased funding hopes to “to increase the number of qualified and appropriately credentialed special education staff, including special education teachers, special education paraprofessionals, evaluation personnel, certified interpreters, board-certified behavior analysts, registered behavior technicians” and others.
Fund Schools First has set up a site for constituents to share their support for the bill. It has a message template that can be used for an email and lists phone numbers for the offices of the Chair of the Finance Committee, Senator Joan Huffman, and the Chair of the Education Committee, Brandon Creighton.
Senator Tan Parker serves on the Senate Finance Committee and represents Argyle ISD, Lewisville ISD and Northwest ISD.
His office can be reached at 512-463-0112.
Representative Brad Buckley filed the bill on February 20. It went through a plethora of steps before getting passed onto the Senate on April 23.
To read the full bill, visit the Texas Legislature website. For more information on public school funding, visit Fund Schools First’s website.
Calls or emails of support for the bill should be sent in by Monday.
