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Windham School District requests connectivity, IT staff and salary parity to support education inside Texas prisons
Summary
Windham School District officials asked the subcommittee for $2.8 million a year to expand classroom internet connectivity for 100 TDCJ campuses, add IT staff and ensure teachers receive comparable pay increases, citing program expansion and postsecondary partners.
The Windham School District requested ongoing funding from the Article III subcommittee to expand classroom internet connectivity across 100 Texas Department of Criminal Justice campuses, hire additional IT staff to support increasing technology demands, and to be considered for any teacher pay increases the Legislature adopts for public school educators.
Why it matters: Windham runs year‑round K–12 and career‑technical programs inside the prison system, serving adult learners and partnering with community colleges and universities. Access to reliable internet and up‑to‑date devices affects students’ ability to earn postsecondary credits and industry credentials and has been constrained by limited campus connectivity.
What Windham asked for: Superintendent Christina Hartman and CFO Robert O’Banion said they amended an exceptional‑item request to ask for $2.8 million per year in Article III strategy B24 at TEA. O’Banion said $800,000 per year would provide connectivity and bandwidth to all 100 campuses; the remainder would fund additional IT staffing (the district requested a phased increase in IT FTEs) and ongoing operational support. Hartman said Windham’s teachers are 100% certified and asked the committee to consider Windham in teacher‑pay deliberations so corrections‑education teachers are not left behind when other state pay increases occur.
Background and program notes: Windham operates inside TDCJ and offers literacy, career and technical training (including regulated trades such as cosmetology and HVAC), adult basic education, and postsecondary programming now that Pell eligibility has been restored for incarcerated students. O’Banion said the district saw a 30% increase in help‑desk tickets since COVID and needs permanent staff to maintain devices and bandwidth as digital instructional materials expand.
Ending: Windham told the panel that technology gaps are an access barrier for incarcerated students and said the requested annual funding would sustain connectivity and staff for instruction and credentialing partnerships with higher‑education providers.
