Every Texan’s director of policy and advocacy Chandra Villanueva was interviewed about Austin ISD’s ongoing, multimillion-dollar budget. She says the solution is simple.
Read an excerpt below:
For school finance expert Chandra Villanueva, the No. 1 way to fix the budget woes school districts are confronting is pretty straightforward: Raise the basic allotment, the minimum amount Texas must spend per student.
“The biggest issue that we’re dealing with is the fact that we have not increased base level funding since 2019,” said Villanueva, the director of policy and advocacy at Every Texan, a progressive think tank in Austin. “So costs have been rising year after year — we saw some record level inflation throughout the pandemic years — and our schools have not been given the additional resources to keep us with those rising costs.”
Edna Butts, the director of intergovernmental relations and policy oversight at Austin ISD, said she expects many school districts to advocate for an increase to the basic allotment when the next legislative session begins in January. Like Villanueva, she said that’s the best way to improve districts’ financial situations.
The last time the state Legislature voted to increase the basic allotment was five years ago when lawmakers raised it to $6,160.