With no new funding from the state, Texas schools are breaking the bank to pay for teacher raises – By Brian Lopez (Texas Tribune) / July 10, 2023
Lawmakers this year didn’t approve extra money to help schools pay for raises despite having an unprecedented $32 billion surplus — even after Gov. Greg Abbott commissioned a task force last year to improve teacher pay and retention.
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Texas lawmakers ended this year’s regular legislative session without giving public schools any money for employee raises — so school districts are finding ways to give their workers modest raises, even if it means digging into their savings accounts.
“We’ve taken the position that in the absence of state leadership, we’re going to take care of our staff, even if it means that we have a deficit budget,” said Bobby Ott, superintendent of the Temple Independent School District.
Ott and his district’s school board are in the process of approving their budgets for the next school year. And for Temple ISD to give its teachers and other staff members a modest 3% raise, it will most likely have to adopt a deficit budget, meaning that its expenditures will outweigh its revenue. The decision would put the district in a $2.2 million hole, even after Ott asked his department heads to make cuts to their spending budgets.
“Passing a deficit budget is not sustainable,” Ott said. “Board policy stipulates that school districts keep a certain amount of fund balance or savings account.”
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