Lawmakers agree on $8 billion school funding package

By Editor | May 20, 2025

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS

Leaders from the Texas House and Senate have agreed on an $8 billion school funding package, which is being called the largest in state history, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The latest version of House Bill 2 was unveiled at a Senate hearing Thursday. It would give the state major discretion in deciding how the funds are spent, from teacher pay raises to special education to school safety.
House Democrats reportedly are unhappy with major changes to the original bill, first passed in mid-April. That version gave local schools more discretion on how to spend state dollars. The new version cuts the proposed per-student funding increase from $395 to $55 but also includes $7.2 billion in new funding, with more than half of that dedicated to teacher pay raises.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said critics should concentrate on the total number of funding being appropriated.
“It seems to be lost in narratives right now as we talk about this historic money, knowing that every district in Texas wins,” Creighton said.
An administrator testifying at the Senate hearing said lawmakers should put more trust in local school districts.
“We hear a lot about [how] we need to be a small government, and yet I see a lot of the bodies talking about things that will put a lot of restrictions on the local independent school districts,” said Phillip Morgan, the Plano ISD fine arts director. “Let those local ISDs make those decisions.”
Abbott moves to block use of food stamps for soda, candy
Gov. Greg Abbott last week formally requested a waiver from the Trump administration to block the purchase of “unhealthy, highly processed food” with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The SNAP program serves more than 3.2 million Texans with more than $7 billion in taxpayer funding, Abbott wrote in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
A bill to ban SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy “sweetened soft drinks” has passed the Senate and is up for a vote in the House.
SNAP recipients receive an average of $187 a month, according to the latest USDA figures.
Power grid weathers an early heat wave
Temperatures soared near or above the 100-degree mark last week, setting records in several cities while power usage came close to reaching an all-time high, the Chronicle reported. Demand hit 81 gigawatts, an all-time high for May according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, but no power shortages were reported.
The ERCOT grid has added more solar power to cushion the grid during the hottest hours and more battery storage to help meet the load when solar power is unavailable, according to energy analyst Rob Allerman.
ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas attributes a growing fleet of renewable energy facilities as one reason the power grid operator should be able to get through the summer without resorting to rotating outages this summer.
House committee considers DEI ban in K-12 schools
A Texas House panel is considering a bill to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hiring and training in public schools — similar to a law passed in 2023 targeting DEI efforts in higher education. The Austin American-Statesman reported state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, is handling the bill in that chamber. It has already passed the Senate.
“This is about performance and achievement and instruction, and very strongly stands against and prohibits discriminatory practices,” Leach said.
Ash Hall, a policy strategist with ACLU of Texas, said the bill could lead to classroom censorship.
“This bill creates red tape and compliance burdens that distract schools from teaching and learning,” Hall said. “It is not about improving education. It is about controlling it.”