Raise Your Hand Texas: From the Capitol to the Classroom

As Rio Grande Valley students continue to enjoy the summer, school districts across the Valley are finalizing their 2025-26 school year budgets and preparing to welcome students back into classrooms. The recent decisions made by the Texas Legislature during the 89th Session, some 300 miles away in Austin, will soon be felt in communities and classrooms across the Valley.

It’s no secret that our local public schools have faced more challenges than their fair share over the past few years. Our students, teachers, principals, superintendents, locally elected board of trustees, and you, the taxpayer, see and feel it in the classrooms and hallways of our campuses as well. 

We can all agree that there’s nothing more important than the future of our state, and that the future is found in our local public schools, where students are supported by skilled, professional teachers. 

Yet, Texas public schools have faced chronic underfunding dating back to 2011, when state lawmakers cut $5.4 billion from state funding for public education. We saw a historic rebound through the 2019 House Bill 3, which provided significant increases in per-student funding. However, COVID-19 and inflation soon emerged, causing our local school to struggle to keep pace with rising costs for salaries, security, building maintenance, transportation, and other essential budget items. 

Districts across Texas are facing budget deficits, a situation not unique to the Valley. According to the Texas Education Agency, over 50% of Texas school districts operated deficit budgets in 2024. Without a significant funding increase, it’s likely that those numbers will only continue to rise, leading to an unsustainable path.

But this spring, Texas lawmakers stepped in to offer some support. The basic allotment, the primary state funding source for our public schools, will increase $55 per student from $6,160 to $6,215.

That $8.5 billion in new school funding for public schools approved by the Legislature this past May is greatly appreciated, but still far short of inflation-adjusted needs. 

Leaders invested in teachers and strengthened the pipeline for future educators with investments in teacher preparation programs. 

Teacher pay raises will vary based on school district size and teacher experience, with raises ranging from $2,500 per year to $8,000 per year. That’s a welcome improvement for our teachers, who, when adjusted for inflation, have earned roughly $5,000 less in 2023 than they did in 2020. 

However, there is also an increase in state mandates on public schools. Thankfully, some, such as school safety requirements, came with much-needed increases in funding allocated for those requirements; however, not all mandates came with additional or necessary funding. 

Much-needed reform of our state’s public school accountability system is an issue that took center stage during the 89th Session, but House Bill 4 died in conference committee. Governor Greg Abbott has added, “ELIMINATE STAAR TEST: Legislation to eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability” to the Special Session agenda. The Special Session begins on Monday, July 21, 2025. 

We’ll keep pressing to Measure What Matters, a more holistic look at testing and accountability that truly supports our students and accurately reflects the work our schools and teachers do each and every day to prepare them for future success.

Vouchers or Education Savings Accounts also loom on the horizon. The program, which could disproportionately affect rural communities, is set to begin in 2026-27. This school year, government agencies in Austin will establish the contracts and processes that will govern the voucher program, which will provide parents with state dollars to use for private or homeschool education. There’s concern that the initial $1 billion in taxpayer dollars allocated for vouchers will balloon to $6.2 billion by 2028-2029 and $7.9 billion by 2030-2031. 

To say that, for the promise of historic investments in our public schools, their students, and teachers, we saw progress this legislative session, but there is still much work to be done. 

That’s where you come in. 

Rio Grande Valley students and teachers need you. Our communities, our economy, and our citizenry all depend on how well we prepare all students today. Supporting and strengthening our schools requires the collective effort of all of us. 

Whether you’re ready to get involved or just want to stay informed about the big issues in public education, join us at Raise Your Hand Texas. Visit go.ryht.org/subscribe for our newsletters or text updates, or you can contact senior regional advocacy director Giovanni Escobedo at gescobedo@rhyt.org.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Raise Your Hand Texas, a non-partisan nonprofit organization supporting public policy solutions that invest in Texas’ 5.4 million public school students. 

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