Legislative Priorities

The decisions made during legislative sessions in Austin, Texas, impact our students, staff, and community.

We are so fortunate in Prosper ISD to be blessed with the best! The best does not happen by chance but more by a community coming together to support and applaud the work of public education. The 87th Texas Legislature is in session, and one of the main areas of focus during this session is public education.

The State of Texas was enjoying a time of significant economic growth and prosperity in 2019-2020. As a result, legislators had the luxury of billions of more dollars to spend on priorities, including education and property tax relief, which resulted in $11.6 billion in state dollars pumped into the public education system. Those expenditures were based on revenue projections that, while conservative, did not consider a global pandemic or an oil price war. As a result, while the State Comptroller initially expected the state to have a $5 billion surplus at the end of the biennium, legislators now face a significant shortfall. Sadly, Prosper ISD did not fare well financially during the 86th legislative session due to being a property wealthy school district.

In July of 2020, updated revenue estimates from the Comptroller indicated that the state would be facing a $4.5 billion shortfall at the end of the 2020-2021 biennium. Legislators are facing a session in which they must cover the deficit from the 2020-2021 biennium while attempting to craft a budget for the 2022- 2023 biennium using Comptroller estimates likely to be filled with significantly more uncertainty than in other sessions. It remains to be seen what long-term impacts COVID-19 will have on the Texas economy and how the Comptroller will factor in these impacts when producing the revenue estimate. School finance was the primary issue in the 86th Legislative Session; as a result, a significant number of legislators campaigned on their participation in school finance reform. Prosper ISD is committed to advocating for public education with the Texas Legislature. The 87th Legislative Session will be like none other. It will require school district leaders, community members, and public school supporters to engage in achieving the best outcome for education.

Prosper ISD Legislative Priorities:

• A cornerstone priority of Prosper ISD is local control and flexibility. As a school district, we must be able to respond to the differing needs of students, educators, parents, and the communities we serve. Advocate for local discretion with spending to ensure that the needs of our students are met.

• Advocate for an adequate and equitable school finance system that raises per-pupil funding to the national average. Texas is currently in the bottom third of the country in state per-pupil funding.

• Oppose any effort to divert local property tax revenues that taxpayers are told will be used to support local public schools to non-public education purposes.

• Prosper ISD is forced to rely almost entirely on local taxpayers to fund our facilities, and our rapidly growing district will be constructing facilities for years to come. Advocate for additional funding for the Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA), Existing Debt Allotment (EDA), and the New Instructional Facilities Allotment (NIFA). If the state chipped in more to assist with funding those facilites, it would lessen the burden on local taxpayers.

• Oppose additional funding for charter school facilities until adequate state funding is provided to traditional school districts. Charter schools receive $1,100 more dollars per student in school funding than public schools and are NOT held to the same expectations by the Texas Education Agency.