Legislative Platform

Increase in the four-year old basic allotment by $893 (approximately *14.5% inflationary increase) to offset increased operational cost due to inflation and other factors. Provide automatic increases each biennium based on inflation index. 

• With an increase to the basic allotment of $893, Carroll ISD would generate approximately $8,000,000 annually. With approximately 5.1M public school students in the state of Texas, this basic allotment increase would cost the state approximately $6.8B of the $30B+ state surplus.
• The ability to hire teachers is largely tied to compensation and without the funds to increase compensation, it will become increasingly difficult to keep teachers.
• Of the operating budget, 83% is personnel. Every 1% of a staff raise is approximately $700,000 to the operating budget. 
• Under the existing allotment, Carroll ISD will have to consider cutting approximately $4-6M from the 2023-24 budget. A significant cut to the budget, such as this, will impact staffing, master scheduling, and programs.
• State law requires districts to pay for audio and video cameras in qualifying special education classroom settings. This is a cost of approximately $4,000 per qualifying classroom.
• Pay for special education costs for identification of students, filling critical positions, and covering costs of diagnostics.

Eliminate recapture on voter approved Tier Two copper pennies.

• Each copper penny generates approximately $1M, of which $560,000 returns to the state.  
• Communities that support their districts should receive 100% of the benefit of Tier Two “enrichment tax” without having to send any funds back to the state to be distributed to other districts.

Revise HB 4545 to allow districts to locally determine the parameters of remediation for students who do not perform satisfactorily on state assessments and provide full funding to implement HB4545 remediation outside of the school day. 

• Mandated 30 hours per student per test and 3:1 ratio - Example: A  student who does not meet STAAR standard on three subjects would have 90 hours of remediation required. 
• Six teachers at summer school just for secondary- $25,000 (ESSER funds eliminated).
• Elementary builds the tutoring into the school day- Absorbed into the teacher’s normal responsibilities.

Modify legislative requirement that requires all students to test for state assessments (STAAR/EOC) online only beginning in 2022-23 to allow paper administration as an accommodation if routinely used as an accommodation in a student's IEP/504 Plan. 

• Many students with IEPs/IAPs have a classroom accommodation of paper tests. Accommodations are designed to level the field for students with disabilities. In its current format, the online assessment cannot be replicated to allow students to routinely practice taking this assessment in preparation for STAAR. Accommodations are only beneficial if a student consistently and routinely uses an accommodation. 

Advocate for increased funding of the School Safety Allotment and local flexibility to ensure districts can adequately meet student and staff safety needs.

• Current School Safety Allotment only provides approximately $70,000 of the $211,566.00 that our current safety program costs. 
• The Commissioner has proposed new amendments concerning school facilities within Chapter 61 requiring the district to comply with a number of requirements for school safety, such as: panic alert systems, updated radio receivers, increase of 2-way radios, forced-entry resistant film on windows near access, perimeter barriers etc.