Austin (Texas Tribune– Texas Public Schools is one step in receiving new funds for the state after the Senate approved Friday unanimously on a $ 8.5 billion financing package, a deal that was born from Long negotiations With the house.
Home Law 2 The regions provide an increase of $ 55 for each student for their primary financing, with a new amount of money to insurance for schools, transfer, facilities, and other costs. The legislation also includes billions of billions for teachers ’salaries and private education, as well as money to prepare teachers, early childhood learning and employee salaries.
After a 31-year-on-Senate vote on the Senate, HB 2 is now returning to the House of Representatives, where legislators are expected to sign the changes before sending the bill to the government. Greg AbbottOffice for final approval.
Legislators Declare An agreement on how to finance state schools earlier this week, as the 2025 legislative session is approaching the finish line. Senator Brandon CretonWho heads the Senate Education Committee, described it as a “transformative education plan that Texas has witnessed.”
“Two years ago, this chamber approved historical and financing education reforms, and took historical steps forward. But as we all know, the bill did not make it through the finish line,” Republican Conrro, revealing the legislation of the legislation in the Senate Hall late Thursday. “It is too late, the waiting was worth it, because this legislation, the draft law of the House of Representatives 2, provides what Texas and Texas teachers really need and ask.”
The agreement related to the financing of public schools comes weeks after the approval of the two councils to spend one billion dollars over two years to create a School vouchers programWhich will allow families to use public taxpayers to finance their children’s private school or pay a wide range of expenditures related to schools.
Republicans in the Senate and Democrats alike celebrated HB 2, the financing bill, which represents a major transformation from the flexible spending system that boycott leaders and public education advocates. The draft law gives the legislature broader inputs on how schools are spent on the country’s funds.
Despite some ongoing concerns, many advocacy organizations in public education praised Friday to pass HB 2 in the Senate.
“Since 2019, we have seen what is happening when the state has a great investment in schools, but every session is no longer after that to build on this basis,” Zev Kabo, President of the American Teachers Union in Texas. “The target and directed allocations are a new approach, and we hope that the legislature will continue to finance it in future sessions.
In addition to increasing the base financing for each student worth $ 55, HB 2 will allocate $ 500 million that the regions can use to increase the salaries of school advisers, library secretaries, nurses and other support staff. The draft law also gives schools $ 106 for each student to pay the costs related to transportation, insurance, facilities and employment of retired teachers, which have become more common as schools are struggling to fill their vacancies teachers.
HB 2 will raise the salaries of teachers, which represents more than $ 4 billion of total financing for the proposal. To do this, the draft law dictates:
- Teachers who have three to four years of experience in educational areas with 5,000 students or less than 4000 dollars will get, while those who have five years or more of teaching in their CV will earn $ 8,000.
- Teachers who have three to four years of experience in educational areas with more than 5,000 students will get an increase of $ 2500, while those who have five years or more of experience will get $ 5,000.
The draft law will also be suitable for Texas Special education financing system To calculate the individual needs of each student; Create a compensation system for Preparation of the teacher And guidance programs; Allocated money to schools to better identify learning difficulties between the state The smallest students; And raise the amount of money received by the regions Safety promotions.
“We were all patient to see this day and patient during the past two days,” Senator said. Boris l. MilesD-Houston. “This is something we can all return home, I think, and I told our colleagues that we have changed the educational financing in Texas.”
School directors and public education advocates spent a lot of the legislative session Pleading For more money, indicating the lack of budget and the high operational costs. This came at a time when the provinces were forced throughout Texas to close the critical programming, and shorten the school weeks and the campus in any small part due to the lack of a small part due to Stolen financing.
School leaders have called for an increase in the basic allocation, on which the regions depend to pay the salaries of the province’s employees completely. The allocation also gives schools flexibility to pay a set of other needs on the university campus, including insurance, maintenance and educational materials.
A The previous house proposal It sought to enhance the basic allocation from $ 6,160 to $ 6,555 per student. Members of the Senate, however, wanted More humble Increased allocation, instead, their interest on the teacher focuses on years of experience, location and performance.
Senate members have argued that the direct investment of the state in teachers will liberate the regions to use more fundamentals in other places, including the salaries of university support and maintenance employees. But this argument did not agree well with school leaders, who felt that they would continue to struggle to provide a similar increase to employees, unlike teachers who suffer from decisive for school operations and students ’positive results.
Also concerned about the provinces that dealing with inflationary pressures that intensified only since the last allocation of the state in 2019. The legislative body decided two years ago not to provide schools with a significant increase in funding after the failed 2021 attempt to establish the school’s cruelty program.
This year, with a draft law to create a draft law that has already signed in the law, legislators say they have settled in increasing the basic basic allocations in the Senate worth $ 55 while sending school funds to address some of the basic cost areas that they fought with.
Senator Jose’s menéScript“We will not leave perfectly on the path of goodness,” said D-SAN Antonio on Friday.
This article was originally appeared in Texas Tribune on www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a non -profit and non -party media organization that informs Texas – and participates with them – about public policy, politics, government and issues at the state level.