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TEA: federal COVID funding receding, local districts face enrollment shifts and deficit budgets
Summary
Commissioner Morath warned the committee that one‑time federal funds have largely been spent and that demographic changes, enrollment shifts and prior ESSER spending patterns have left some districts operating deficit budgets or closing schools.
At the House Committee on Public Education meeting on March 1, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath told members that statewide school funding faces multiple pressures: the end of one‑time federal COVID funds, local enrollment changes and the mechanics of the school finance system.
Morath summarized the finance picture: statewide per‑pupil all‑in funding can be hard to aggregate because of federal infusion and local property tax variation, but the agency’s slide presented an all‑in per‑pupil figure in the mid‑$15,000 range as a frame of reference. He warned that one‑time federal resources that boosted district budgets in 2020–22 have largely been exhausted and that Texas school systems face a reduction in federal funding in the current year.
Why it matters
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