When Texas cut education funding, low-income students and those in need of additional support lost the most.

In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut $5.3 billion from the

two-year public education budget—about $500 per

student each year of the biennium—leaving local school

districts and campuses scrambling to make decisions

on how to operate with less revenue despite a growing

student body. 

 

These massive cuts created a funding hole,

around five years long and over five billion dollars deep.

For half a decade, public school spending dropped billions

of dollars per year below the level schools previously

spent. 

 

Texas finally returned to investing the same amount in

2015 as it had a before the 2011 cuts – at least in terms of

inflation adjusted dollars. However, because the number

of students continues to increase, the state has not yet

returned to its pre-recession per-student funding levels

of 2008. Furthermore, as funding levels began to recover,

the increases were not distributed evenly. Educational

investment essentially shifted from high school to

elementary and from special programs for students in

need of support to overall basic instruction.

School districts were forced to reduce spending on all

educational programs at all grade levels in 2011 due to

the loss of the American Recovery and Reinvestment

Act funding and then again after the Legislature cut $5.3

billion from public education funding.

 

Though spending on educational programs is beginning

to rebound, the recovery has not been complete or even

between grade spans. To bring 2016 funding levels up to

2008 pre-recession levels would require an investment

of $3.2 billion dollars into public education. When

comparing 2016 spending to 2008 pre-recession levels:

• Elementary schools spent $65 less on instructional programs per student.
• 
• Middle schools spent $268 less per student.
• 
• High schools spent $428 less per student.

As the findings from this analysis show, when the

Legislature cuts public education funding schools are

forced to make hard choices. While expenditures on all

instructional programs decreased over the past five years,

low-income students and those in need of additional

supports bore a greater share of the cuts. 

 

The consequences of the state’s decision to cut public

education funding will become evident in the coming

decades as students advance from elementary school

toward college and careers. Right now, we know that

Texas dug itself a hole in education funding. Every year

that the Legislature fails to invest in public education,

that amount grows. This is how spending gaps of the past

become achievement gaps in the future.



