Raise Your Hand Texas’ Bob Popinski Testifies on House Bill 100

Raise Your Hand Texas provides the following public testimony in response to the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Education Hearing on April 4, 2023, regarding House Bill 100. Raise Your Hand Texas will continue to keep the public informed through written and invited/public testimony on the issues related to public education in Texas.

Delivered by Bob Popinski

Raise Your Hand Texas

Before the Texas House Committee on Public Education  

The Honorable Representative Brad Buckley, Chair

April 4, 2023

Key Points

• Raise Your Hand Texas supports the additional investments in our students, teachers, and public schools made by HB 100 by Rep. Ken King through the changes the legislation makes to our state’s various Foundation School Program funding formulas
• HB 100 allows more funding stability in school planning for staffing and programs by using enrollment-based funding for certain program allotments   
• RYHT also recommends increasing the Basic Allotment to keep pace with inflation, which would amount to an additional $1,000 added to the current $6,160 Basic Allotment 
• RYHT also supports creating an automatic annual inflationary adjustment tied to the Basic Allotment using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or some similar indicator

Position: Support

Raise Your Hand Texas supports HB 100 by Rep. Ken King. HB 100, as filed, continues to address the needs of our students, teachers, and public schools by increasing certain allotments, including the Basic Allotment. The bill also provides enrollment-based funding for certain program allotments, which will provide stability and predictability within our Foundation School Program for funding teachers, staff, and school programs.   

Over the last three years, our state has seen double-digit inflation, placing a tremendous amount of pressure on public schools to fund teacher and staff salaries, health insurance, energy costs, and more. HB 100 will provide additional funding to address some of these challenges, but Raise Your Hand Texas also recommends creating an annual automatic inflationary adjustment to the Basic Allotment based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or some similar indicator.  

As detailed by the Legislative Budget Board’s Fiscal Size-Up for the 2022–23 Biennium, projected spending for our public schools has actually declined when adjusted for inflation. By increasing the Basic Allotment and creating an automatic inflation adjustment, public schools will continue to at least have the same purchasing power year over year.  

Table 1: Prekindergarten To Grade 12 Texas Education Agency Funding In Actual And Constant Dollars Fiscal Years 2014 To 2023 as provided by the Legislative Budget Board