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Legislative Platform

This page will serve as a central hub for Carroll ISD’s legislative priorities and updates. Now that the 89th Legislative Session is underway, we will be sharing key priorities that impact our District and community and will direct you to advocacy opportunities in the coming months.
Stay tuned for more information and check back regularly for updates on how legislative changes could affect Carroll ISD. Our goal is to keep the community informed and engaged as we advocate for a stronger future for our students.

89th Legislative Priorities

Advocate for higher state funding to ensure that schools can keep pace with rising operational costs and inflation, allowing us to sustain essential programs and support student success.

The state should adequately fund the programs that it requires schools to provide, ensuring that these mandates don’t strain district budgets or detract from other essential educational resources.

Adjust the recapture system, enabling school districts like Carroll ISD to retain more local property tax dollars to directly support their local students and communities.

Carroll ISD is the model for excellence and efficiency: we have done more with less, but this is not sustainable. The State of Texas must uphold its responsibility to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

Download our Legislative Priorities here.

Dragon Principles

How Did We Get Here?

Like most districts in the State of Texas, CISD is facing a number of circumstances out of our control, which are impacting our budget, including:

  • 40 year record inflation
  • A state funding formula that has not been changed since 2019
  • Declining enrollment in Texas public schools
  • Underfunded mandates from the state - including requirements for special programs.

Underfunded Mandated Programs

Despite this lack of funding, the state continues to increase demands on public schools by way of underfunded mandates. These are programs and services school districts are required to provide, but that the state does not provide adequate funding for.

CISD is Currently Underfunded in These Key Areas:

  • Special Programs
    State mandates require districts to provide a range of specialized services to meet the needs of their students, but the funding falls far short of covering the costs. Carroll ISD must use general operating dollars to bridge the gap, creating a $6.4 million deficit that the District must cover.

  • Technology
    The state requires districts to have technology infrastructure to support mandated online state testing. However, funding hasn’t kept pace, leaving Carroll ISD to pay for essential technology upgrades and maintenance.
  • Safety
    State requirements mandate various safety protocols, but funding is insufficient to cover the costs of security staff, campus safety technology, and emergency preparedness. While the generosity of the City of Southlake is currently covering much of these requirements through provision of our School Resource Officers, increasing demands from the state could impact our budget in the future.
  • Ongoing Teacher Raises
    While teachers received a salary increase in 2019, the funding was one-time only. Districts must now find ways to support ongoing raises, adding pressure to budgets already strained by other underfunded mandates.

District Inflationary Impacts

In addition to Underfunded Mandates, the District is struggling under the weight of 40 year record inflation that has impacted nearly every area of our budget. Below are just a couple of examples of the most significant cost increases we have seen.

  • Utilities - we have seen a $960,000 increase in costs since the 2019 - 2020 school year - an increase of nearly 40%

  • Insurance - Insurance costs have increased by $1.5 million since the 2019 - 2020 school year - an increase of over 220%

Recapture Growth and Its Impact on Carroll ISD

Recapture, also known as Robin Hood, allows the State of Texas to remove local property tax dollars from public school districts. Legislators then use these dollars to help balance the rest of the state budget - with no accountability. Recapture began as a limited revenue source for education funding, but it has grown exponentially — now taking an average of $3.3 billion in property taxes from Texas public school districts over the past five years.

Carroll ISD alone is expected to pay over $25 million in recapture back to the state this school year.

CISD Isn’t Alone

Districts across Texas are making tough decisions as we wait on our representatives to update school funding. In fact, here are a few districts going public with similar financial challenges and decisions.:

Clearly, CISD isn’t alone in facing these financial challenges, and we are doing everything we can to find solutions, by first urging our legislators to remedy the insufficient state funding formula.

Links and Resources

Did You Know?
Click here to learn more about CISD school finance, as well as view an explainer video about Texas public school funding.
 
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88th Legislative Priorities
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