Northwest ISD staff warns proposed Texas voucher, tax and testing bills could reduce school funding

Doctor Faust, a district presenter, told the Northwest ISD Board of Trustees that multiple bills introduced in the 2025 Texas legislative session could substantially reduce funding available to public schools and shift authority over testing and accountability.

“School choice with a $1,000,000,000 universal ESA is a priority for the governor,” Doctor Faust said, describing competing proposals in the House and Senate and their expected fiscal impacts. He summarized the Senate and House budget bills and singled out several education measures, including Senate Bill 2, House Bill 3, Senate Bill 26, Senate Bill 4 and House Bill 4, and House Bill 6.

The update outlined key provisions and fiscal notes reported by district staff: the Senate voucher proposal (SB2) would provide $10,000 per year for eligible students and $11,500 for students with disabilities, with a homeschooled allocation of $2,000 (or $2,500 for students with disabilities). Doctor Faust said the Senate’s initial fiscal note projects $1 billion in the current biennium and $4.6 billion over four years; he said district staff expect long‑term growth in program cost. The House voucher proposal (HB3) would calculate voucher amounts as 85% of state and local funding per ADA and would be open to any student eligible for public school, Doctor Faust said.

Doctor Faust said the Senate budget set aside roughly $4.85 billion for public education and called attention to Senate Bill 26, which he described as a teacher-pay proposal that targets only classroom teachers (tiers of increases beginning at three years of experience). “In the senate’s budget, senate bill 1, the senate set aside $4,850,000,000 for public ed funding,” he said, adding that the fiscal note for SB26 is about $4.1 billion and that, as drafted, most of the new state funding would be consumed by that teacher-pay bill.

On taxation, Doctor Faust warned that tax-rate compression bills (he cited Senate Bill 4 and a House counterpart) that expand the homestead exemption appear to remove the district “hold harmless” and would prohibit early payoff of interest-and-sinking (I&S) debt. He said that, for Northwest ISD, the district’s analysis estimates increased long-term taxpayer costs across I&S debt if the hold‑harmless provision were removed.

Doctor Faust also highlighted House Bill 4 (which he summarized as removing the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, STAAR, as currently administered by the State Board of Education) and said the proposal would transfer control of the accountability system from the elected State Board of Education to the appointed Commissioner of Education and restrict districts’ ability to sue over accountability rules.

Board members asked clarifying questions and raised concerns about how voucher money would be routed and administered. One board member said some bill language appears to send funds to the comptroller and to schools that apply rather than directly to parents — and another observed that up to 8% of a voucher allotment could be used for administration and that third‑party vendors might receive significant sums to manage the program. “We were calling it a vendor bill instead of calling it a voucher bill because that money is going to vendors, mostly vendors,” a board member said.

District staff described local advocacy efforts: staff and board members were in Austin for PTA Day, and the district plans additional meetings with lawmakers and an advocacy group session with a guest from TASA. Doctor Faust closed the presentation saying the district would “advocate very aggressively” against provisions that would harm public schools while continuing to press for adequate funding.

The presentation was informational; no board action on state legislation was taken at the meeting.