Budget & Legislative Advocacy Information

The State of Texas ranks in the bottom 10 states in the country when it comes to per-pupil funding for public schools according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

With the massive state budget surplus ($38 billion+) that the Texas Legislature had to work with, how does that happen?The Texas Legislature did budget about $7.6 billion for public schools during the 2023 legislative session, but Governor Greg Abbott made getting that money to schools conditional on the creation of a taxpayer-funded school voucher program. As a result, despite a majority of legislators supporting public school funding and opposing vouchers, the budgeted funding will not make it to our schools, and we are forced to make cuts that will impact our students and teachers to balance our budget. Once again, we are doing everything we can with what we have to serve students. We can no longer do more with less!

How can you help? Encourage our legislators to fully fund public schools with no strings or unfunded mandates attached. Visit here for more on messaging and who to contact!

You may be feeling a pinch at the gas pump, grocery store and more, and school districts are no different. Due to a lack of additional funding from the state - even just enough funding to cover the cost of inflation - we are doing everything we can with what we have to serve students. We can no longer do more with less!

Texas is one of only six states that calculates funding based on average daily attendance rather than enrollment.

How can you help? Send your kids to school (if they aren’t sick, of course)! We didn’t make the rules on attendance and funding being connected (that’s the state’s rule, and we have asked repeatedly for it to be changed), but it affects us everyday! Of course, a kid’s attendance helps them stay on track academically. But did you know that just one percentage tick up on average attendance for the school year in AISD (from, say, 94% to 95%) means an additional $400,000 in funding for our district!

Property values, and thus property tax bills, continue to increase in Texas but the state funding for public schools has stayed the same. In other words, when property values like those in Aledo ISD increase, Aledo ISD gets more local property tax funding but we get less state funding and end up with the same total. Even so, Aledo ISD has reduced its tax rate nearly 39 cents over the last five years.

This video by Raise Your Hand Texas explains the relationship between local and state funding for school districts:https://bit.ly/fundTXschools

What does this mean for you? This means that, even though we’ve all paid more than ever in property taxes the last few years due to the skyrocketing values of our homes, Aledo ISD is not any better off. The state keeps what they would have put toward education and uses it for other priorities (not funding education!). This year, the state had a surplus in excess of $38 billion and very little was allocated to public schools.

How can you help? Encourage our legislators to fully fund public schools - using that $38 billion-plus surplus and the tax dollars you already pay that should be going to public education - with no strings or unfunded mandates attached. Visit aledoisd.org/legislativepriorities for more on messaging and who to contact!

FINANCE FACT: The Texas legislature has not raised the basic allotment - the amount a district receives each year per student - since 2019 despite the record inflation we’ve been experiencing since that time. Aledo ISD would need an additional $1,200 per student just to get caught back up to 2019 funding levels.

In Aledo ISD since the 2019-2020 school year (the last time the Texas legislature raised the basic allotment), we’ve seen:

• Fuel costs increase 188.95% or nearly $315,000
• Insurance costs increase 329.43% or just over $1.2 million
• Utility costs increase 55.53% or nearly $855,000

 How will this affect you? Without an increase in funding or a raise in the basic allotment, Aledo ISD and school districts across the state are being forced to make cuts that will impact our students and teachers to balance our budget. We are doing everything we can with what we have to serve students. We can no longer do more with less!

The “Robin Hood” scheme of recapture takes your local property tax revenue from Aledo ISD and redistributes it to other school districts across the state. Since Robin Hood started, Aledo ISD has paid more than $12 million in recapture payments to the state. It is projected that property taxpayers in Aledo ISD will contribute another $875,000 to the state in 2024 through recapture as required by state law… even though the state has surplus revenues far beyond what it is charging in recapture.

What does this mean for you? Though we’ve paid more than ever in property taxes the last few years due to the increasing values of our homes, even more of your tax dollars are NOT going to your own school district.

Only 21.8% of registered voters in Aledo ISD cast ballots in the last Primary Election in 2022. Elections are decided by those who show up to vote! Early Voting in the 2024 Primary Election began Tuesday, February 20 and runs through Friday, March 1, giving you 12 days over the next two weeks to vote! Election Day is Tuesday, March 5!

Your Aledo public schools are on the ballot - make your plan to vote today and make sure that your voice is heard! On this ballot, you will find races for president, U.S. and state senators and representatives, judges, and other locally-elected positions. Find more information here. View your sample ballot here and find your precinct number under “Am I registered?” on this site.