90th Texas Legislative Session Priorities (2027)
SUPPORT FAST-GROWING DISTRICTS THROUGH EVERY STAGE OF GROWTH
- Ensure state policies address the unique and shifting needs of fast-growing districts, including changing enrollment trends, rapid growth, new school openings, and long-term staffing and facility needs.
- Support flexible right-sizing policies that respond to changes in enrollment and accommodate differences across districts, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Reduce administrative requirements that disproportionately impact districts experiencing enrollment changes, preserving high-quality programs and prioritizing student success.
- Ensure that new transparency or oversight requirements affecting education foundations do not impede their ability to support fast-growth districts’ unique needs.
PROTECT LOCAL CONTROL AND COMMUNITY INVESTMENT
- Maintain the May and November election dates so communities can access the bond market in a timely way and fund facilities needed to keep pace with enrollment growth.
- Ensure bond and tax-rate ballot language is clear and accurate, and oppose requirements that mislead voters or undermine locally approved projects.
- Safeguard the purchasing power of voter-approved debt and oppose restrictions that weaken local capacity to issue and repay bonds.
- Oppose new limits on local funding and budget authority that would restrict fast-growing districts’ ability to open and operate schools to meet enrollment demands.
- Protect the PSF Bond Guarantee Program to ensure taxpayers continue to pay discounted interest rates on school facilities bonds.
STRENGTHEN FUNDING FOR FAST-GROWTH DISTRICTS
- Support property tax relief that fully, reliably, and permanently replaces lost local revenue, so that efforts to reduce or eliminate school property taxes do not destabilize the funding that fast-growth districts depend on for operations and facilities.
- Prioritize increases to the allotment for basic costs and ensure targeted allotments reflect the true costs districts face locally.
- Address statewide facility funding needs and remove the statutory cap on the Fast Growth Allotment to prevent arbitrary reductions in the allotment.
- Support teacher recruitment and retention investments, including in the TRS system, needed to staff districts through periods of rapid growth and enrollment change.
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