Equity Center

05/09/2023

The 88th Legislature has three weeks to finalize any legislation they intend to pass. Currently, the only comprehensive school finance bill, House Bill 100, has passed the House, but is not moving in the Senate. Both the House and Senate have $5 billion allocated to increased public education funding in their respective budgets; however, the Senate makes the $5 billion contingent on the passage of five bills, including a voucher bill.

The Senate's school safety bill, Senate Bill 11, passed the Senate, but has not yet passed the House Public Education Committee.

The House's school safety bills, House Bill 3 and House Bill 13, passed the House and are awaiting for a hearing in the Senate. We expect a compromise bill within the next two weeks. The funding level in these bills differs drastically.

At this time, it does not appear that the two chambers are any closer to an agreed-to property tax reduction package.

The Senate proposal would spend $16.5 billion on property tax reduction utilizing an increase in the homestead exemption to $70,000 alongside further M&O tax compression, while the House proposes to appropriate $17.3 billion to compress M&O rates and enact a 5% appraisal cap for all properties.

01/19/2023

Equity Center members... be sure to check your email for your link to register for the 22nd Annual School Finance & Legislative Workshop. The lineup of speakers is one you will not want to miss. Not a member? Contact us to join today!

06/07/2021

The Legislative Session ended May 31st. Be sure to check out our Legislative Update video recap, stay tuned for our upcoming quarterly newsletter, and log-in to our member portal for latest news, including Funding Formula Wizard updates to reflect new legislation! If you aren't a member - JOIN TODAY! www.equitycenter.org to learn more.

03/22/2021

The Legislature is in full swing. Busy week with:

The Appropriations Article III subcommittee finalizing their K-12 budget recommendations,
-Senate Finance beginning to finalize its two-year budget;
-House Public Education hearing their version of HB 3 cleanup legislation Tuesday;
-House Ways and Means hearing property tax reform legislation;
-House State Affairs has scheduled HB 749, legislation that would prohibit school districts from joining associations who lobby the legislature;
and we are waiting on a posting from the Senate Education
-Committee regarding HB 3 cleanup legislation.

Lots more budget information will be available shortly.

Two and a half months remaining in the 87th Legislature.

02/09/2021

The Congressional House Education and Labor Committee is meeting today to discuss legislation that would allocate an additional $130 billion in funding for K-12 education to assist school reopenings and student educational needs.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, if passed this would be the largest ever one-time federal investment in K-12 education.

At the state level, the Senate Finance Committee has begun its budget hearings. The Legislative Budget Board explained to the committee that to date, Texas has received approximately $25 billion in federal COVID-related funding with TEA being allocated $5.5 billion of this amount.

01/13/2021

The 87th meeting of the Texas Legislature is underway.

Monday the Comptroller released the Biennial Revenue Estimate that will guide lawmakers as they begin to build the 2022-23 two-year state budget.
The good news is that the current year budget deficit projection was reduced from $4.58 billion to $950 million.
Further, according to estimates, it appears that state revenue will remain relatively flat over the next two years compared to the current two-year biennium. Lawmakers have the resources available to fully fund the Foundation School Program to keep your budgets whole.

If you have questions or comments let us know.

You can find the BRE here:

At the beginning of each regular session of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Constitution requires the Comptroller of Public Accounts to submit a statement showing the state’s financial condition and estimating the revenue it can expect to receive during the next two-year budget period.

06/08/2020

Reminder: TASA Virtual SummerCon 2020 is this week. Be sure to tune in on Friday, June 12th at 10 a.m. as we present The Future of School Finance LIVE!

https://tasavirtualcon.org

June 9-12, 2020 Leading Our Schools Through Crisis and Preparing for a New Normal The TASA Summer Conference is going virtual! TASA has planned a dynamic online learning experience centered around the issues school leaders are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including planning for the new schoo...

05/15/2019

Check out the op-ed featured on Texas Tribune's Trib Talk...by Deputy Executive Director, Josh Sanderson.

This one change will solve numerous problems that plague our school and tax system that literally cause billions of dollars to be misallocated every year. We can and should be using precious tax dollars more wisely for students’ needs. 

03/05/2019

Chairman Huberty filed HB3, the school finance bill this morning.

Find the bill text here:https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/pdf/HB00003I.pdf

A press conference will be held upon adjournment and we expect him to discuss the bill at that time. Stay tuned for an analysis and more information on this bill in the days ahead.

03/04/2019

How much is a billion dollar increase in Texas Public Education? Let's look at a Snickers Bar a Day comparison to find out!

How much is a billion dollar increase in Texas Public Education? Let's look at a Snickers Bar a Day comparison to find out!

10/04/2018

Texas Comptroller releases updated property value growth numbers that will impact budget decisions in the coming legislative session. View the Legislative Update below. Be sure to renew your membership or join today as a member or sponsor to receive access to weekly video updates like this one providing key information on school finance issues and policies impacting your students and community. www.equitycenter.org

An Equity Center update on Texas Education Agency and Comptroller of Public Accounts revenue growth projections for this school year and next biennium, as of...

09/17/2018

Be sure to watch this video as EC Deputy Executive Director discusses school finance in the upcoming session with KXAN's political and investigative reporter Josh Hinkle.

The rising burden on local taxpayers is bringing new attention to proposals to change the system for funding public schools.