The LISD board room was quiet. A special meeting was called on Aug. 26 to approve the budget. As the seven board members came to the end of this year’s budget terms, school board secretary Sheila Taylor began to speak. 

She called it “painful.” 

The other board members spoke after. They labeled the funds “a theft,” and said the money was being “held hostage.” School board president Jenny Proznik declared to the state government: “The ball is in your court. We will be watching.” 

LISD’s general fund budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year includes a $4.5 million deficit. Proznik said this is due to a low basic allotment — the primary mechanism for the funding of public education — which stagnated in 2019. 

“If [the state] starves our education system, what will happen in 20 years?” Proznik said. “I see public education the same way I see infrastructure: a bridge is great, but if you never take care of it, it will fail. It will fall.” 

Continuing a trend from the past four years, LISD reduced over 135 positions in the district. The majority of these came from central office staff members, but other faculty spots, such as teachers and administration, were not replaced. The district has yet to lay off teachers due to budget cuts; rather, it does not fill every empty spot when staff members leave. 

“It is a priority of the board to do our very best not to affect classrooms when making budget cuts,” Proznik said. “But schools are very interconnected; every decision goes back to the classrooms. It always affects students.” 

Due to the decrease in teaching positions at schools, the school’s class sizes have increased to an average of 26 students with a high in the low 30s. 

“Class sizes are difficult because I want to be individually involved,” algebra teacher Randi Riordan said. “I want to meet every kid, but how do I do that with this many kids in a room? How can I help every student with more than math when I can barely find time to help them all with the math itself?”

Additionally, some classes across the district with lower enrollment will not be offered next year. One example is Latin, causing Latin teacher Courtney Herring to teach social studies instead.

“[Finding out I would lose Latin] was just like grieving,” Herring said. “I was shocked, then I was angry. After that, there was this little bit of hope that maybe we could convince them to keep the program. Then it was silver linings — I won’t have to redo my AP syllabus when it changes, and the fact that I love history. But, I just keep coming back to hurt.”

LISD made cuts at the middle school level as well, removing previously-mandated double-blocking from all English classes. This was designed to free up English teachers for more periods, thus allowing for a reduction in faculty size. This change also cut student English education in half. 

“That kind of stuff worries me,” English teacher Donna Friend said. “What’s to stop it from getting worse? What are the next awful choices we have to make?”

LISD has previously filled budget deficits with funds from its general fund balance, which is approximately $132 million — which is about $37 million less than the balance during the 2021-22 fiscal year. 

The state mandates that school districts’ fund balance must be equal to or greater than 25% of its yearly expenses, which would be about $128 million for LISD. Superintendent Lori Rapp said the district would not have to tap into its fund balance to this extent if the state matched public school funding to inflation. 

“It feels very frustrating on behalf of students and teachers across Texas,” Rapp said. “It almost sends a message to those working in public education that they are not valued in Texas.”

In the state budget, $5 billion remains unspent for public education — a surplus projected to grow to $21.3 billion by the next legislative session. Though the funds have been approved specifically for public education, the bill — which also included approval for a school voucher program — was rejected by the Texas House of Representatives. In a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, 40 Texas House representatives argued that the vouchers would divert money from public schools. 

“The money is there,” Proznik said. “It is sitting in Austin. It should be sitting in classrooms across the state of Texas. [Legislators] have plenty of money, yet they have chosen not to fund public education. That is the tragedy. That is the crime.” 

The voucher program, which includes Education Savings Accounts, would use some of the approved budget to provide funds to Texas parents to help pay for their children’s education. This program would give families who choose to leave the public education system $8,000 a year. In an address at the annual Texas Policy Summit last year, Abbott said this will allow students to leave failing schools that they may be trapped in due to their zip code.

“I believe that every parent can do a better job of raising their children if they are given the power to choose the school that is best for their child,” Abbott said at the summit. “If they are given that power, that child will go down a pathway to better educational success, personal success and relationship success. Collectively, we can make Texas even better when we all go to work to make sure we get across the finish line.”

The basic allotment provided by the state is $6,160 per student who meets the average daily attendance threshold. This, combined with bond funds, retirement plan funds, tax-revenue from voter-approval tax rate elections and emergency relief funds make up the general fund balance for each school district in Texas. 

However, some districts must send a certain amount of their funding back to the state in a program called Recapture. Coined “Robin Hood,” this program disperses money from wealthier districts across the state. 

Districts, along with cities and special districts, also send money to make up the budget for appraisal districts. LISD is the largest contributor of the 17 school districts that fund the Denton County Appraisal District (DCAD) and are scheduled to pay $4.7 million this year — almost 20% of the appraisal district’s budget. This budget increased by about $3 million from last year to provide raises for DCAD’s employees. 

“I don’t think appraisal districts should be funded on the backs of students and teachers,” Rapp said. “What money that is attributed to school districts should stay in the school districts. Change needs to happen in the funding of appraisal districts.”

Of the money remaining in the budget, school districts cannot allot money from bonds nor retirement funds for teacher raises. Educators are among the least paid professions, with 52% of teachers in Texas working second jobs. Principal Amy Boughton said, when she was first starting in education, she had to work for her family’s business on weekends to meet the cost of living.

“I remember thinking ‘I don’t know if I can do this financially,’” Boughton said. “I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, and that’s hard.”

Texas is ranked No. 41 among all states in per-student funding, about $4,000 per student behind the national average. 

“To the legislators: You have an obligation to do right by the 5.9 million students in this state,” Proznik said. “If you don’t do right by them, ask yourself what kind of Texas you want and what kind of country you want. It’s time to start funding the future, [and] that means funding public education.” 

LISD shares its finances under its financial transparency page and sends out monthly newsletters about its advocacy. In 2023, a team of 10 former LISD Teachers of the Year — including Friend — and Rapp met with Texas legislators during the legislative session. There remained no increase in the basic allotment. 

“Those legislators represent us,” Friend said. “Some of them have been to our schools, stepped in our classrooms, and they don’t even know what we do. It feels like [a] betrayal.” 

Boughton attended school in the district before working in it as an adult. She said she advocates to make sure the public education she got as a student is not in jeopardy for future generations. 

“Advocacy for public education has always been important to me because I am a product of it,” Boughton said. “I went to LISD; I graduated from it. I am a principal today because of LISD, and I always want to be out there advocating for kids to have that same opportunity.” 

The next legislative session is scheduled to start Jan. 14 and end on June 2. Rapp said she encourages students, teachers and parents to speak out and vote.

“While I am concerned, I have great hope,” Rapp said. “We — as a community and as a staff — can impact change. By partnering with our elected officials, I do believe that we can see change happen. There’s never been a more important time for our community to come together as one LISD — one family.”