Senate Education Committee adopts HB 2 committee substitute that directs $8 billion for public schools, creates permanent teacher pay allotment

The Senate Education Committee on HB 2 adopted a committee substitute at a committee hearing that the chair said would deliver "$8,000,000,000 in new funding for Texas public education." Senator Creighton, chair of the Senate Education Committee, presented the substitute and described new, permanent funding for teacher compensation and targeted investments in literacy, career and technical education and school safety.

Why it matters: The substitute reshapes how Texas directs new dollars to school districts by creating a permanent teacher compensation allotment separate from the basic allotment, expanding special education funding and adding tranches for early literacy and school-safety investments. Committee members and invited witnesses said the changes could affect teacher recruitment and retention, district budgeting and charter school funding and oversight.

The committee substitute for House Bill 2, as laid out by Senator Creighton, would allocate $8 billion in new state funding across the biennium. Creighton said the bill adds an equivalent of $55 to the basic allotment — the session’s stated $55 increase equates to about $800 million — and that the remainder of the new dollars, about $7.2 billion, is devoted to other targeted investments. "House Bill 2 delivers $8,000,000,000 in new funding for Texas public education," Creighton said while summarizing the substitute.

Central to the substitute is a new, permanent teacher compensation allotment, Creighton told the committee. He said the allotment is intended to make teacher pay increases enduring rather than one-time stipends tied to the two-year budget cycle. Creighton also described a larger funding…