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Royse City ISD finance director outlines legislative changes and school‑finance windfalls in House Bill 2
Summary
The district’s budget workshop reviewed a committee substitute for House Bill 2, including an increase in the basic allotment (6,160 to 6,555), a 40% teacher‑salary set‑aside for any allotment increase and funding shifts that could inject billions into Texas public schools.
Byron Bryant, who led the budget workshop, told the Royse City ISD Board that the committee substitute for House Bill 2 would inject substantial new money into public schools and redistribute funding toward rural and small districts. "The basic allotment would increase from 6,160 to 6,555," he said, noting the change is larger than earlier expectations and would require 40% of any increase to be directed to teacher salaries.
Bryant walked trustees through additional proposed changes: a permanent freeze in the golden penny yield at 129, increased weights for special education with commissioner-determined factors, expansion of early‑education allotments to include pre-K, and adjustments to bilingual and at‑risk funding. He also summarized other active bills: House Bill 500 (supplemental funding for SHARS losses), Senate Bill 568 (special education funding reform) and several bond-related proposals, including House Bill 19, which would change bond-election timing and add supermajority requirements for some debt-related tax-rate choices.
Board members discussed the trade-offs in proposals related to hold‑harmless provisions and bond capacity. Bryant emphasized the district will continue to budget under current law for 2025–26 and will amend the budget as legislation firm ups, with preliminary values and further discussion expected at the next workshop.
