In April, Arlington ISD trustees were told that a declining birth rate and charter schools are pushing the district’s enrollment to fall under 50,000 students by 2032. Now, the school board members know it may happen as soon as next year. Board President Justin Chapa said that the enrollment drop was a part of a larger issue. view article

The Austin school district must sell two school properties this year to keep its $19.7 million deficit from ballooning. If the old Brooke or Rosedale campus properties fail to sell, district officials may have to go back to the drawing board to explore other ways to save money just months after a painful decision to close 10 schools because of budgetary and enrollment strains. view article

While the largest portion of any Austinite’s property tax bill goes toward the local school district, almost half of what a local homeowner pays toward education actually leaves Austin, through a decades-old program called recapture. view article

Texas’ chief financial officer on Tuesday finalized rules for the state’s private school voucher program, clearing up confusion about funding for pre-kindergarten students and setting official dates for schools and families to apply — but declining to change certain special education components or tack on additional accountability requirements.  Private schools and vendors who currently participate in an existing state initiative for students with disabilities can apply on Dec. 9, while applications for nonparticipants are set to open shortly after.   The state will then allow families to start applying on Feb. 4, the date Texas’ finance chief and Odyssey — the finance and technology company helping administer the program — had agreed upon in their contract.   The program, which the Texas comptroller’s office oversees, will officially launch at the start of the 2026-27 school year.  view article

After a $385 million bond proposal failed to pass this month, Manor ISD is now going back to the drawing board. The funds would have been used for upgrades and renovations across the district. The money from that multi-million dollar bond proposal would have gone to fund projects across Manor ISD for the next 6–8 years, but without that funding, the district will now have to look to other sources of revenue, including making cuts to fix the issues they're facing. view article

John Huffman was the best-funded candidate in the Senate District 9 special election thanks to casino interests, but failed to make the runoff. Gambling proponents still have millions more to spend on Texas races. view article

Yass, a school voucher supporter and an influential figure in Texas politics, said the only condition for the gift was for the school not to receive government funding. view article

Voters in the Socorro Independent School District narrowly rejected a tax measure that would have increased funding for the financially troubled district, leaving district leaders scrambling to move forward without the additional revenue. The district’s voter approval tax ratification election — or VATRE – asked voters to authorize an increase to the operations portion of their tax rates beyond the state’s limit, while reducing the debt payment tax by an equal amount. State law requires that voters approve such a step. view article

The Killeen ISD Board of Trustees approved a series of school closures and consolidations Tuesday designed to save more than $100 million over five years, according to district officials. The optimization plan includes closing three schools at the end of the 2025-2026 school year and making several program changes as part of what district officials call a strategic effort to improve efficiency and strengthen student programs. view article

Houston ISD is cutting about 50 employees under the office of special education as part of a reorganization that moves the division into the department of academics. HISD said Thursday the cuts mostly affect staff directors and coordinators who don't work directly with students in the classroom. The last day for employees working on campuses is Nov. 3. The employees are eligible to reapply for other positions in the district, according to the statement. view article

A regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of Bonham ISD was held October 20, 2025 in the Bonham ISD Administration Center. Board President Chance Roberts called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. All board members were present, except Kenzie McCraw and LaTonia Arris. Fifth graders from IW Evans led the pledges to the US and Texas flags. view article

Clear Creek ISD officials are seeing attendance rates throughout the district rise to over 96%—a rate it has not seen since before COVID-19. While the district did not include attendance data for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, attendance rates were over 97% in the 2016-17 school year, and dropped to nearly 92% in the 2022-23 school year. view article

Dallas ISD board member Ben Mackey said Thursday that state lawmakers’ massive $8.5 billion funding package passed in the recent session falls short of funding in place before COVID 19. Mackey made his remarks at a Dallas Women’s Forum at the Communities Foundation. The topic was school funding and this year’s legislative session. view article

The Boerne Independent School District is one of five San Antonio-area school districts going out for a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE, this November. VATREs give districts access to more funding for daily operations, like salaries and student programs by allowing school districts to raise their Maintenance and Operations (M&O) tax rate by up to 12 cents. view article

Five other censures were rejected, including one for Speaker Dustin Burrows. view article

Texas is taking a bold step to expand educational opportunities. In 2025, the Legislature created the Education Savings Account (ESA) Program to give parents the freedom to choose the best path for their child’s future. Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, funds will be made available to children accepted into the program that can be used for private school tuition, educational expenses for home-schoolers, tutoring, career and technical education programs and more. It’s an exciting new chapter for education in Texas — designed to put parents in the driver’s seat. view article

Despite being one of the best school districts in the state, the Coppell ISD is struggling with low enrollment and is forced to consider closing schools and firing teachers and staff. Coppell ISD has named Town Center Elementary as a campus that may close next year to help narrow an $8 million budget gap, and it’s not the only school impacted. view article

Liberty Hill ISD has become one of the fastest growing districts in Central Texas with nearly 1,000 new students joining the district each year. Nearly 2,000 new homes are built in the district annually, which is the third highest amount of new home construction in the Austin area, Zonda Demographics Vice President Bob Templeton said. view article

City departments have worked with all six universities in the past, and Austin already has a longtime interlocal agreement in place with UT. Charles Purma III, program and technology manager in Austin's budget office, said city leaders saw an opportunity this year to strengthen existing partnerships given the student populations and varied areas of expertise in the Central Texas academic community. view article

Ahead of a $20.2 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26, Leander ISD administration has put forth three possible cost-saving pathways that could include closing down and repurposing Cypress, Faubion and Steiner Ranch elementary schools next year.  Despite a public school funding bill that sent $8.5 billion to Texas school districts, the bill requires the money be spent largely on teacher salary raises, school safety mandates and special education allotments. view article

The welding lab at Texas State Technical College runs three shifts around the clock to keep up with demand. Come January, even more students could join those sparks flying as Texas launches its first statewide school choice program. Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock toured the TSTC Waco campus on Tuesday, Sept. 9 to highlight how families will be able to use the new Education Savings Account program to pay for technical training that leads directly to high-paying careers. view article

Round Rock ISD board members on June 17 adopted a $467.42 million general operating budget for fiscal year 2021-22. The general operating fund budget includes $444.53 million in revenues and $467.42 million in expenses, creating a deficit in this fund of $17.2 million, RRISD Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Adix said. view article

State lawmakers were prepared for a budget crunch, since the COVID-19 pandemic slashed revenues from sales taxes, energy taxes, and other sources. The question they now face is how to close the shortfall without choking off long-term growth.  The answer is far from clear, but it’s certain to involve cuts to popular programs.  In fact, such cuts are what's expected this session. The state comptroller's office says lawmakers need to close a shortfall of nearly $1 billion in revenues. And Republican state Sen. Brandon Creighton of Conroe, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, noted that Gov. Greg Abbott has asked state agencies to reduce budgets by 5%. view article

Bryan ISD's Board of Trustees have approved a one-time $500 supplement for their salaried employees. Teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, administrators and professional staff receive their pay bonus on their Dec 15 paycheck. view article

Texas pre-K programs are just scraping by after losing millions of dollars last year — and without sustainable funding, they could see greater problems down the line, school officials say. During the 2017 legislative session, lawmakers decided not to fund a $118 million high-quality pre-K grant program that was created in 2015 and championed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The money had gone to 573 districts and charter schools that pledged to meet measures such as setting a lower student-teacher ratio, avoiding Common Core curricula and reporting student progress to the state. view article

Burnet school district officials were probably expecting to get more than two years from the synthetic turf installed at Bulldog Field in 2015, but that didn’t happen and it’s now set the district back $150,000. Burnet Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Keith McBurnett, however, said the district is looking to get $105,000 back from one manufacturer. Last year, officials noticed some turf fibers sticking up higher than others, so they took a closer look, McBurnett said. “To most people, it probably wasn’t noticeable,” he said. “We had all the experts look at the field, and they looked at the backside. It needed to be replaced.” view article

On Saturday, voters who live within the Houston ISD will go to the polls to determine how - or if - the district will pay the state millions in "recapture" fees. Whatever voters decide on Proposition 1, the Houston ISD will take a financial hit, officials say. Recapture, and school finance, can be difficult to grasp. To help, here are the answers to some questions about the ballot measure. view article

The Round Rock school district awarded $1.9 million in grants to 34 campuses to help foster innovation in schools through programs, models or initiatives that enrich learning. The grants range from $7,500 to $100,000 and support the district’s strategic goal of implementing, enhancing and reinforcing innovative teachings and learning models, according to a district news release. view article

Fort Bend ISD is going to begin serving up something different for some students who continually fail to pay for their lunches -- a cold cheese sandwich with a side of milk, and that's not sitting well with some parents. We're not talking about students who qualify for free school meals. But apparently, these repeat offenders have gotten so "forgetful" that it's draining the district's budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars. view article

The Garland school district’s $453.8 million budget for 2015-16 passed this week. Here are the highlights: Taxes are going up: There’s a 10-cent per $100 valuation tax increase tied to theNovember 2014 passage of a $455 million bond package. Garland ISD previously had the second-lowest tax rate among 16 districts that tax in Dallas County; the bond will bring that closer to the midpoint. view article

The Lampasas Independent School District met Monday to discuss the district’s fiscal year 2016 budget and proposed tax rates. “My idea was still to give everyone a tax break, but to make it 1 cent right now, and we could change it in a year if we need to,” board member Sam Walker said. “I think we are jumping the gun by dropping it 2 cents.” view article

Marfa ISD is taking a proactive approach toward its potential Chapter 41 status, which would classify the district as a “rich” school. Chief Financial Officer Victoria Sanchez discussed with the board of trustees at the June 15 meeting five different options they could possibly choose for the Chapter 41 status and heavily stressed that the board should consider each option carefully as three of them would have permanent repercussions. view article

The Dallas Independent School District presented a draft version of a comprehensive plan for facilities and academic improvement to the board of trustees on Thursday. The long-range plan, which calls for $1.5 billion in funding, would be directed at school choice, pre-k expansion and career readiness, according to DISD officials. view article

Duncanville ISD thought it was getting a great deal when, one year ago this month, it switched electric providers and signed on with the State Power Program through the state's General Land Office. Just like that, Duncanville ISD's price-per-kilowatt hour dropped almost 20 percent, from 7.3 cents to a maximum of 6 cents. view article

The Comal Independent School District is paying off bond debt early in an effort to save taxpayers money. The district's board of trustees voted Thursday night to pay off $6.5 million in bond debt ahead of schedule. view article