>>Becky>> West Texas Public Schools.

Well Texas public schools in general are in financial crisis.

Enrollment is increasing.

Costs are increasing.

Yet State funding has not increased in six years.

I'm Becky Ferguson.

Welcome to a special edition of One Question with a panel of State and local experts to learn how we got here and what we may expect going forward.

[intro music] >>Becky>> Tonight's episode is made possible by Diamondback Energy Premier Energy Services and the Permian Basin Area Foundation.

We will begin by introducing the members of our panel, Dr. Stephanie Howard, superintendent of the Midland Independent School District.

Dr. Keeley Boyer, Interim Superintendent of the Ector County Independent School District.

Amber Davidson, the President of the Midland Council of PTAs.

And Amy Dodson, Senior Regional Advocacy Director for Raise Your Hand Texas.

So I want to just jump right in.

And, Stephanie, I want to start with you um, I think we need to start with what is the current financial situation in each of the districts represented here.

And I want to start with you.

>>Stephanie>> Right.

So thank you, Becky, first of all, for having us, um, Midland ISD, we adopted a deficit budget this year, uh right around $42 million deficit, uh.

What's happened across the state that that our other districts across the state are dealing with is further complicated for Midland with the loss of Formula Transition grants.

So back in 2019, we started receiving Formula Transition grant money um this year we do not have that.

That equates to about $35 million.

So uh we're in the process of making budget cuts and working to to bring that to our balanced budget and looking to cut 35 million or a little more than that from our budget in this given year.

>>Becky>> And that Formula Money that you were getting, why were you getting that and why are you not getting it anymore?

>>Stephanie>> So back in 2019, that's the last time the finance system changed and any time the finance system changes in the state of Texas, they're districts that are winners and those that are losers and those that are, you know, are going to be about the same.

But for us, we were um going to lose significant amounts of money, hence the 35 million, and so typically the state will put in uh some type of transition, grant or uh we had asset to our years ago to allow districts to prepare to come off of that additional funding that they'll no longer receive.

Um our school district and administration did a really good job.

They set aside almost 57 million in a signed fund balance uh to use, uh we're using some of that this year uh so that those cuts didn't all have to be made in one year.

>>Becky>> Okay.

I'm going to ask you one more question about Midland financing.

Are we still subject to Robin Hood?

We still send our local tax dollars to um Austin?

>>Stephanie>> Yes.

So um Midland ISD still has been part of recapture since 2013.

And so we've paid in since that time, uh, pretty much what happens is the state looks at a what's called an equalized wealth uh equalization line, uh school districts, when their local values exceed that line, that excess revenue goes back to the state in the form of recapture.

>>Becky>> So how much did we send last year?

>>Stephanie>> Uh, last year, about 90 million.

This year we're expected to send about 87 million.

>>Becky>> Thank you.

Keeley, would you give us up to date on what's going on with ECISD >>Keeley>> Also, I'd like to extend my thanks for the invitation.

So similar to Midland ISD, we also adopted a deficit budget and ours was about 12 million.

And so we were able to address that through attrition and closing some positions through attrition.

Um also really looking at duplication of programs, um and so we did get rid of some programs.

And so for us, we were able to address that $12 million deficit through um really, I would say staffing cuts, but not necessarily people, and so did most of it through attrition.

We raised class size uh to 28 to 1 at the elementary school, which then allowed us to cut some positions, um.

But so this was a little less at 12 million, but we were able to address that through attrition and and closing some positions.

>>Becky>> Is ECISD subject to the recapture?

>>Keeley>> No, we're not.

>>Becky>> Okay.

Amy, Im going to jump over to you because you have a more global view, because you represent West Texas and Central Texas school districts.

So kind of give us a bigger view.

>>Amy>> Absolutely.

Well, an and similar to to Midland and Ector County, there's about 60 to 65% of the school districts in the state that have adopted deficit budgets, um.

As I think about West Texas specifically in this area, some of our smaller districts haven't had to adopt a deficit budget.

But make no mistake, they are hurting for funds.

And they if they haven't had to adopt a deficit budget, they've had to tap into that mandated safety savings account, we call it Fund Balance, but they've had to tap in there to make up.

They've had to cut through attrition, as Dr. Boyer said, eliminate some positions they've not expanded, one superintendent said I needed two new busses.

I can't afford two new busses.

I balance my budget by eliminating that 600,000 $700,000.

So proportionately, the smaller districts uh might not sound like 42 million or 12 million.

But for them it's a large proportion of a portion of their budget.

But across the State, the issue is, is this there was some Federal money that came in after COVID that have hurt schools because people always want to know, how did we get here?

There was some Federal money that helped after COVID that's now gone.

Um.

Inflation has hit everyone.

You're paying more.

I'm paying more.

We all are for things that impact schools the same way they impact our households.

>>Becky>> How is 22% in the last Two years.

>>Amy>> 22% that's exactly , so we pay more at the gas pump.

So do the schools for their school busses.

We pay more for eggs.

So do the schools for feeding the children every day for electricity and insurance for our homes.

So do the schools where schools are in a different position is their amount the amount of money they have to spend is directly decided by the legislature.

So we're here because of all these factors.

And in 2023, the legislature didn't take action to increase funding.

There has not been an increase to the basic allotment, which is that foundational piece for schools since 2019.

As Dr. Howard indicated, when they made the Formula Transition grant available for some schools in 2023, we had hoped with inflation going up, that there would be an increase to school funding and teacher pay and all of those things.

And there wasn't um, there was a huge debate over uh the voucher system and wanting to bring that to Texas, which is not a new discussion.

It's been going on for years, but um it took a different turn in 2023 and so every bill that came in to try to get more funding was tied to a voucher.

And ultimately um there was no agreement and everything was set aside.

There was about $4 billion that was supposed to go to schools.

It was allotted in the budget that just went into general revenue because it couldn't they couldn't get a bill agreed on.

>>Becky>> So the voucher bill didn't pass.

And so no additional school >>Keeley>> Thats correct.

>>Becky>> funding it passed.

>>Becky>> Okay, um, I think we'll probably uh get back to vouchers, but and I'm going to stick with you.

I want to talk about per pupil spending in Texas.

What is that amount and how do we compare to um other states?

>>Keeley>> Sure.

Absolutely.

So when you look at the money that goes in per student, because that's how schools are funded on an average daily attendance, not on enrollment, not on every not on every child that you have to plan to have there.

But you're only funded for the little darlings that show up and are in class every day.

So for that, in Texas, it's roughly around $10,000, 10,500 somewhere in there.

It starts with the basic allotment that we've all mentioned that has an increase.

That's $6,160.

And then they add other other features depending on different characteristics.

So it's about 10,000 ish for each student.

And nationally, sadly, that is about 46th in the country based on the 2024 data nationally.

So we are in the bottom six in the country for how we fund our public schools.

And our students were even more than $3,000 behind the state of Louisiana, our dear neighbor to our East.

So we we've got a long way to go.

4400 plus just to get to the average, uh, and we're just not there.

We're just not.

There.

>>Becky>> Well, um so the legislature is meeting right now and Stephanie, I want to start with you.

What are you hoping for in this legislative session?

>>Stephanie>> Yeah.

So I want to kind of go back to something >>Becky>> Sure.

>>Stephanie>> you said I think is important, um.

Many times people that are not accustomed to or are familiar with school finance, they don't understand that school districts really never have new money.

And so, um, you know, our other taxing entities here in Midland, when values are up and they're good as they have been in the last several years, uh they may even lower their tax rate and bring in more money uh school districts can't do that.

We have a ceiling and a floor and they tell us what we can't go over and what we can't go below, uh.

But then also, if if the values are up, then they um take more and they send less to us.

So they keep us about the same all the time.

So that's something that's different that I think many times people don't know because other taxing entities, it doesn't work that way, uh What we're hoping uh with the legislative session, of course, an increase to the basic allotment uh specifically for Midland, we've talked about unfunded and underfunded mandates.

So pre-K is a very important part of our strategic plan.

So when we think about setting that early foundation, 60% of our students come to us from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

So when we think about establishing that firm foundation for their education, pre-K is where that is.

Uh.

But the state only funds half day pre-K.

So we subsidize to have full day pre-K by about 2.7 million is what it costs us to run full day pre-K. And we serve almost 1300 students uh right now, three years and four year olds, uh.

The other is in the last legislative session, they required an officer at every campus, >>Becky>> A security officer.

>>Stephanie>> Right an armed officer.

And so we've been able to triple the size of our police department.

And, you know, when that first passed, I really thought we would have a hard time being able to staff the positions, uh.

We've actually been able to staff the positions, but that's about a $3 million underfunded mandate.

And so when we look at payroll vehicles, training, uh weapons, all the things that are required for an officer, um that is an expense that, um you know, came out of the last legislature >>Becky>>That was a state requirement that was not funded.

>>Stephanie>> Correct.

They underfunded it.

There was a little funding, but 3 million short for us.

And um then also average daily attendance, um.

You know, Amy talked about that, We have 29,343 students as of Friday.

And so but if all 29,343 of them didn't show up on Friday, we didn't get money for each of them.

So we're asking for average daily enrollment.

We have to be prepared to teach them every single day.

Right now we say, you know, if a couple hundred don't show up one day, we can't send some teachers home and say, well, you know, you're not going to get paid today, um.

So we have to be prepared to teach them all.

And and I also think it's important, you know, the the attendance rates have really been low compared, you know, before COVID, um.

We're starting to see that come back a little bit, uh.

But it's very difficult to improve those attendance rates and it costs money to do that.

It's truancy officers and people that that work from that angle, uh.

We're also asking um specifically, we're spending and investing a lot of um resources in grow our own in in bringing people into the profession, working them through the profession.

So a teacher's aide with our registered apprenticeship.

But all of that costs money and there's not money allocated for that because historically that's been work that was done at the university level.

And now school districts um are finding that if they want to be proactive, that we have to do that work ourselves.

And so uh some type of funding, maybe like a CCMR bonus outcome, but for education preparation uh because we've been very successful in in having quality people in the classrooms that way.

But it does cost money and that's not money that's coming to us from from the state.

So those are some of the big the big things that we're asking >>Becky>> Yeah, Keeley >>Keeley>> Well, Stephanie stole all my answers.

>>Becky>> Okay.

Now, well, you.

>>Keeley>> Know, but we're in the same situation with the unfunded mandates, um school safety, like she mentioned, we are able to hire officers and we've hired 30 officers um in the past year and a half.

And so that's a little over $4 million for us that we are funding, that the state is not funding.

And same with with pre-K. We've got about 1500 kids in pre-K. And so that's an additional two and a half million dollars that we're funding to ensure we have full day pre-K for all of our 1500 kids.

Um also would like to add in Special Ed.

And so for Special Ed, we're spending about an additional $8 million um on Special Ed services.

And so um very similar.

We have a lot of um I would say, unfunded mandates and but that are priorities for us as well.

And so we would like to see the state fund that same along the lines of pipeline work, Principal Incentive Allotment um Midland also has a Principal Incentive Allotment.

So really building our own um and rewarding and retaining our own.

And so that is money luckily and generously we get from the Permian Strategic Partnership, um.

But it's important to us that we are able to compensate our most effective principals and teachers.

And so to get some additional funding from the state for those programs um would also be very, very beneficial.

>>Becky>> Well, Amber, you were President of the Council of PTAs which are all the PTAs in MISD.

Do you all have some goals for the legislative session?

>>Amber>> We do >>Becky>> Wishes.

>>Amber>> Um, well, and we kind of really mimic both ECISD and MISD um as to what their goals are.

Um Texas PTA has set out five major initiatives um improving school funding, um improving retention of teachers.

Um, if they're going to mandate you know the school security that they need to um fund that and fund it fully, not just part of the way, um and then keeping our public school dollars in in our public schools, um.

>>Becky>> And when you say that, what do you mean.

>>Amber>> Giving money to vouchers.

And that should be spent to our classrooms um and helping support what they're doing is not what I believe any taxpayer um including myself want where we want to see that money uh go.

I was up in the teacher.

I've been out of the classroom for three years, but I've taught in private school setting um and my kids did go to a private school.

But that was my choice.

I didn't expect anyone else to fund that.

That was our choice.

That was our decision.

But they are now both um within MISD, and we're very happy that they are there.

But if you want to send your kids to a private school, I believe in a lot of cases that should be your choice and your use of your own funds.

>>Stephanie>> Becky, I want to brag on Amber real quick, um.

She probably wouldn't do that but under her leadership, she's grown the PTA membership by 34% this year.

>>Becky>> That's super impressive.

>>Amber>> Thank you.

>>Becky>> Love that.

Okay, Amy, you need to tell us a little bit about what is Raise Your Hand Texas, because I don't think everyone knows what that is.

And then tell me what Raise Your Hand Texas hopes to see out of the legislature.

>>Amy>> Sure.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Raise Your Hand, Texas, I, I I'm not surprised that some people don't know about us, and it's totally fine.

But for the last 17 years, we've been based in Austin.

Our offices are across the street from the Capitol, but we are a nonprofit, nonpartisan public education shop.

So we work in the advocacy space trying to help people find their voice and their story, uh, not just teachers, but parents and community members, business leaders, anyone who has a vested interest in public education, which we believe is every Texan, has an interest in public education.

Uh.

We also do a lot of legislative work working in the Capitol with our representatives and senators, helping them with good research, good data, good policy points where we're very blessed to be the often the first call for some folks in the Capitol staffers to say, okay, what does this really mean?

How will this affect public schools?

And we are very blessed to get those calls oftentimes and have for many, many years.

So um it's a wonderful organization, something I'm very proud to be a part of.

And um for us, this session, we've focused on four things.

Obviously, the things you've just talked about.

Uh.

We've we want to really make sure that we have funding for schools, that we increase our funding.

Schools are hurting.

We've already talked about that.

That's a primary focus for us, taking care of teachers, uh, teacher salary, our data from our Learning and Impact tea that does deep research on the Charles Butt Foundation, which is our sister organization.

We know over five years of tracking data, we are now at the point that 78% of all Texas teachers are seriously considering leaving the classroom and the pipeline is not there.

ECISD and Midland do a fantastic job of growing their own, and that's where schools are having to really dig in.

But we need to do more to bring more people into the profession because we are losing great, great teachers for a variety of reasons.

So taking care of teachers is one of ours.

Accountability reform.

Uh.

No teacher ever, and I was a teacher for a very long time, Becky.

No one ever said, don't hold me accountable.

Don't make sure that I'm doing what I need to do.

But what we need is a fair and transparent system of accountability that really tells our community what is actually happening.

Because right now, for elementary and junior high, it's just the STAAR test.

It is a one day, it's one test.

It doesn't show all the fantastic things that happened at Dowling and PEAS Elementary and ECISD.

It doesn't show communities what they I think, hope and believe that it actually shows them.

So we want to see more indicators added to the accountability system.

And then lastly, exactly what the dear superintendents on the panel said.

Full day funding for pre-K. That is the foundational piece we know data shows as nationwide and in the Texas, that students who come out of a strong quality pre-K program are better prepared.

They do better in math and reading.

So we talk a lot in Austin right now about early literacy and numeracy.

We meet those goals by having strong pre-K programs across the state.

Full day is great, but full day funding is what we really need.

So those are our four programs.

>>Becky>> Okay, I'm going to stay with you for a moment and ask a philosophical question.

>>Amy>> Ok >>Becky>> Uh, why are public schools important?

Are they important locally?

Why are they important in Texas?

Why are they important in the nation?

>>Amy>> It's such a great question.

It's tough.

I will give two responses.

One.

Texas is the eighth largest economy in the world.

We are growing by more than a thousand residents a day.

Businesses are coming.

We talk about often the Texas miracle of business growth.

And that's fantastic.

How can that be sustained if we don't have an educated workforce?

How can we move forward if we don't have students that are quality coming out of our schools?

And how do we do that?

We make sure we take care of our teachers, we take care of our schools, and we give them the resources they need to be successful.

I always say that it's about 90% of Texas children go to Texas public schools.

That means 90% of the time, the person who fixes your air conditioner puts the I.V.

in your arm, does your bank loan, fixes your insurance or flies your plane came out of a public school.

They're important.

The other piece, because you said philosophically, I will share I had a wonderful conversation with a pastor in Waco two years ago, and we talked about why was public education important?

And he said something so transformative to me in my thinking.

He asked me, I responded.

I asked him, Well, what do you think?

And he said, I think the most amazing thing about public education in the United States is the audacity of even trying to educate every child in our country.

He said that's what makes America great, is we have the audacity to dream big.

So for Texas, we're dreaming big that every child in our state gets a quality education.

And that's what matters to me in public education.

>>Becky>> I love that.

>>Stephanie>> And I think, Becky, on that note, you know, many times we hear that public schools are spending too much money per student.

We spend more money than than other operators or private schools maybe could educate students for.

But it's to that point, we are truly educating every student.

And some students have very different needs um than a traditional student that, you know, comes to school, goes to their their regular classes a we have 52 languages spoken in Midland ISD.

and so those students are learning English um as a language.

It costs more to educate a student like that, uh.

We serve um any student that shows up and regardless of what it's going to cost to do that, uh that's what we do and that's what we all signed on for.

But many times when you look at the dollar amount, it looks like we spend more.

And truth be told, we do for some students.

>>Becky>> Keeley, I want to go to you now.

I know there are folks what watching who like you all are very interested in um achievement.

And some might believe that we should short public schools until unless and until achievement improves.

Talk a little bit about achievement in public schools.

>>Keeley>> So I would say it is it is increasing.

It is improving.

I mean, for us, our kindergarten readiness um achievement has increased over the past several years.

Our college career, career and military readiness is at 88%, which is well above the state.

And so for achievement on STAAR, you see us on trend with the state.

And so where the state is improving, we are improving.

We're closing gaps.

So I would say an achievement is improving.

We can always do better and we can improve.

But to not fund us and expect us to do more with less is also not going to help us increase outcomes for kids.

And so that's why you hear us advocating for additional funding so that we can do more for our kids um instead of trying to do more with less.

>>Amber>> Well, and I would add that when you look at what a private school tuition is just here in Midland, they're all well above the $6,160.

And they do not have busses.

They do not have um most of them if they play a sport, there's an extra fee attached to their enrollment um tuition for that.

Like those parents are paying extra for that.

And yet we're only going to give $6,160 per student.

And when you look at what it really costs, it's far more than that.

It's probably double to actually educate every kid.

>>Becky>> Yeah, good point.

>>Amy>> Becky I >>Becky>> Yes, no, please >>Amy>> I want to hop in you asked achievement, so I think um and and Amber hit it as well.

We talk about what parents really want, um.

Our schools are doing a really good job.

Our system and accountability in Texas, um.

Sometimes we move the goalposts for schools.

When schools start getting used to the system, like, okay, we understand how you're going to grade us.

We start closing those gaps, as Dr. Boyer said, and then the goalposts get moved.

And then it looks like we didn't do as well as we could have.

And we always want to do better.

But if you look at the national scores, the national NAEP scores that came out in December.

If you compare apples to apples.

So if you factor in the bilingual background for for many of our Texas students, the economically disadvantaged numbers in Texas, which are very different than other states, but when you actually look at that, an apples to apples comparison to how Texas students did, Texas is in the top ten in the nation in math and reading scores.

When you really look at it from that perspective, STAAR scores don't always show that eighth year of accountability doesn't always show that because it's a fluid system that we set up a little bit differently in Texas.

I think it's important for your viewers to know that we always can get better, but we're doing a great job.

Teachers are doing great job.

Parent support is making a difference.

Partnership makes everybody better.

>>Becky>> Thank you for making that point.

Okay.

Let's imagine uh that the legislature does not provide any additional funding or adequate funding.

What cuts do you have to make?

>>Stephanie>> Well, so we're in the process right now just trying to get to balance before anything happens at the legislative session um.

We're looking at increasing class size.

Uh.

We we haven't done that to the extent that ECISD has.

But that's going to be an area we're going to have to look at.

We continue to look, of course, at the district level um to try to keep those cuts as far away from students as we can, uh where we've gone line by line in the budget and continue to do that.

Where you know, just starting out, um the campus budgets were due last week um District um departmental budgets last week.

And so they're going to, you know, if we truly don't get any help from the state, the cuts are going to be significant.

And and unfortunately it will be felt closer to the classroom.

>>Becky>> Keeley >>Keeley>> So I think we've done our cuts close to the classroom in terms of raising class size.

So we're going to have to continue to look centrally and central administration.

Uh programming for us the bigger concern is, is that would be another year without a raise for our staff.

And so I think that is where we are concerned the most is that we would go another year without another raise for staff.

And so this past year we were able to do a retention stipend, um but that's not a raise.

And so I think that is going to be our our priority.

And really our concern is how do we compensate staff adequately if we don't get any additional money, which would probably mean going into our fund balance.

>>Becky>> Stephanie, Amy mentioned a few minutes ago so many teachers are anticipating leaving the profession and I know money is is a part of that.

You also talked before we went on about negativity toward teachers.

Can you talk to talk about that a little bit more> >>Stephanie>> Sure.

You know, and it's been going on for a number of years now, but just such an, um, you know, a negative landscape out there around education in general.

And um our teachers show up day in and day out.

They work very hard, you know, coming back to the district.

I've been back two years now, and uh we absolutely had a lot of work to do.

And we dug in and we've we've started doing that work.

Our teachers have bought in, our principals have bought in.

And, um you know, when I speak to our community groups, I talk about, you know, there are many areas where we're not at state average yet.

And when I talk about the goal is to get to state average and then, of course, exceed that.

You know, one of the questions I get sometimes is we want to be better than the state.

And the answer is absolutely yes.

But we also have to keep our teachers showing back up day in and day out and working so hard.

This profession is hard and it's harder than it's ever been.

And um when they're always hearing about how what they did wasn't good enough, and you know they didn't get the gains, um and then on the accountable system, you know, we didn't join the lawsuit the last two years.

We knew we had work to do and we felt like our time and resources were better utilized just digging in and getting to work on those areas.

And so we've we've been doing that work.

Our teachers are doing the work and working very hard, um but if all you hear all the time is what's wrong with education, it can be discouraging.

>>Becky>> I believe that, uh Amber, really quickly, what have you asked your members to do?

>>Amber>> I just want them to be engaged.

I want to um ECISD has PTAs well and so I encourage everybody, get to know your campus, get to know your principals, your teachers, tell them thank you.

You know, reach out to them because when you get to know them, you have a you have that better relationship in those kids.

Your child is going to do better, um.

And then stay engaged.

Know who you're voting for.

Make sure they're a proponent of public schools um also, you know, write that letter.

They don't want to hear from these people.

They want to hear from us.

>>Becky>> Well, I'm going to end it right here by saying thank you to all of you all for uh coming today.

Many thanks to our panelists, Dr. Stephanie Howard, MISD Superintendent, Dr. Keely Boyer, Interim ESD Superintendent Amber Davidson, Midland Council PTA President, and Amy Dodson of Raise Your Hand Texas.

We are grateful to Diamondback Energy Premier Energy Services and the Permian Basin Area Foundation for generously sponsoring this special edition of One Question.

We also thank our Basin PBS board and staff, along with the Elizabeth Reed Yeager family and the Anwar family, for their generous support of Basin PBS.

And, of course, thank you, our members and viewers, for your support.

If you're not a member and you would like to become one, please visit our website at basinpbs.org.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Becky Ferguson.

Good night.

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