Texas Democrats unveiled their own school finance plan Thursday that they said will fully fund the state’s public schools. House Bill 177, authored by state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, is dubbed the “Fully Fund Our Future Act.” It provides teacher pay increases, a bonus for support staff and an increase in the student basic allotment.
“It’s time we put our money where our mouth is,” Hinojosa said. The bill makes a $15,000 pay raise for public school teachers its cornerstone.
Hinojosa said college graduates with education levels similar to that of teachers are making 21.5% more than Texas teachers. This comes at a time the state is also losing a record number of teachers. The Texas Education Agency reported in September that more than 13% of the state’s teachers — nearly 50,000 of them — left the profession last year, resulting in the highest annual loss on record.
“It’s time we stop paying just lip service to support our Texas teachers and start paying them their actual worth,” Hinojosa said.
The bill also adds a $5,500 bonus for all support staff on a school campus and increases the student basic allotment an additional $2,787. Currently the student basic allotment is $6,160 per student. It has not been raised since 2019, despite inflation. Hinojosa added that the bill includes an annual adjustment for inflation.
In addition, the bill includes separate additional funding for special education programs by allocating $2.3 billion annually for the biennium and $3 billion of school safety measures to help schools pay for recent legislation that requires, for example, an armed officer on every campus during school hours.
