State of Education: House Committee on Public Education
- Griffin Saltron
- May 11
- 1 min read
An often repeated narrative is that public schools in Texas are underfunded. This is entirely false.
The 89th Legislature focused heavily on supporting education in Texas. From establishing a school choice program with “$1 billion in funding and the largest day-one launch in the country,” to providing “$8.5 billion in new funding for public education, including over $4 billion for teacher and staff pay raises,” the legislature ensured that education remained the state’s clear number one priority. Despite these efforts, the public education lobby continues to decry Texas public schools as underfunded, stating that for Texas to be number one in education:
…it will require substantial increases in public school funding every budget period for the foreseeable future…
—Texas State Teachers Association
A common line of argument is that Texas’ public schools are underfunded, and this is often used as an explanation to dismiss poor performance. If schools only had the resources they need, the argument goes, they would do a better job educating kids. This is also used as a basis for opposition to school choice, that more choices would not be needed if only the existing options had more money to perform better. These arguments are false.
Schools in Texas are fully funded, and funding increases every year. Public education is well-established as the state’s top spending priority, with Article III Education funding accounting for 39.3 percent of the 2026-27 state general revenue budget. In total, that amounts to $133,069 million dollars.
