Big Spring ISD adapts budget to school voucher legislation
Local school districts are now figuring out how to adapt to the new legislation and work it into their budgets before the next school year.
Leaders at Big Spring ISD said it is hard to determine because it depends on the number of students leaving the district to attend a private school or homeschool.
'If a child does that, that means we lose that child from our district,' said Big Spring ISD Superintendent Jay McWilliams. 'They're going somewhere else. That hurts us in terms of our overall ADA, which is our average daily attendance. So if our attendance starts to drop because kids are taking advantage of that, that would definitely hurt us. It would be less money coming in from the state based on our average daily attendance.'
The district also receives money from the state for students on a per-child basis. School officials said that amount has not increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.
'We had kids out of school for months,' said McWilliams. 'A lot of kids didn't come back. They went the online option. They went the virtual option. That turned into a disaster for a lot of people. We've had inflation. It went crazy since 2019. The state has not added money to the basic allotment since 2019. We've had the same amount for six years. Even though the inflation rate, the cost of living has went through the roof. That's another thing that needs to be adjusted that would really affect our finances.'
School officials have also been looking at the budget since early April to be proactive about any changes the new legislation could cause.
'The House wants to add $395 to the basic allotment. That's good, but it's not near enough. But it would be a great help. Right now we're hearing the senate, they're not wanting to do that. They're wanting to add maybe $50, which to us is a slap in the face. I'll just be honest. But you're working on a budget, you're trying to utilize to your best ability the money that we anticipate coming in, not only from the state, but from our mineral values and our property values,' said McWilliams.
Superintendent McWilliams said he still believes in the value of a public education.
'I fully believe in public education. I know what it did for me, I know what it did for my kids, I know what it's doing for my three grandkids that are all in public schools. I would also say to the people or the noise on the outside that say 'nowadays I don't think I'd send my kids to public school,' until you've actually worked in a public school setting, until you've worked with the people that I've worked with, that I've been blessed to work with for all these years, I don't think you really know the dedication and professionalism and love for kids until you've been around them.'
Big Spring ISD has been looking at the budget since early April to adapt to the new legislation. Teacher retention was a topic of the budget as well:
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