Districts 'disheartened' by lack of funding from the legislature

SAN ANTONIO - Despite having a nearly $33 billion surplus, state lawmakers failed to allocate any new money to public schools this legislative session.

The battle over school vouchers left public schools and teachers caught in the crossfire.

“It's not necessarily shocking,” Adrian Reyne, a teacher at Longfellow middle school, said. “It's just disappointing and disheartening,"

Reyna said, once again, being left in the dust by the Texas legislature is hard - especially as teachers continue to struggle.

"You have teachers having to make decisions about whether or not they get to stay late for tutoring or get to be a sponsor for that after school program, or do I need to go get a second job so that I can make ends meet,” Reyna said.

With the huge state surplus, this year was supposed to be different.

But attempts by some lawmakers to increase teacher pay and public-school funding were thwarted by others who tied new public-school funding to something that public schools do not want: school vouchers and educational savings accounts.

“To leverage an increase in school funding, if nothing else just to keep up with inflationary pressures, with ESA ‘s and vouchers, it's just really disappointing and disheartening,” NISD superintendent Dr. John Craft said.

"I think it's unfortunate that vouchers and new money to public schools were tied together,” Dr. Sean Maika, North East ISD superintendent, said.

“It is very disappointing as a superintendent, that we are not getting the support that we need,” Dr. Eduardo Hernandez, Edgewood ISD superintendent, said.

Districts around the San Antonio area are now left scrambling to try and do right by their employees and educate students without needed additional resources.

“It's unfortunate that school districts, including children and staff who've dedicated their entire life to this work, are being held hostage,” Hernandez said.

The last hope is a special session. Districts and teachers will try and get the money they need but will once again have to fight vouchers they don't want.

“We've got to take care of public education and, particularly, we have to take care of our staff and our teachers, because we have too much on the line and our kids are relying on us,” Craft said.

The budget that is on its way to the governor's desk allocates money for every state employee except for teachers.

Schools needed House Bill 100 in order to get their additional funding but once vouchers were added to the bill, it died in the House.