We hope you will join us for the next Texas School Coalition membership meeting on Wednesday, November 11 at 1:30 p.m. We will be providing post-election analysis as well as making some plans for 2021. You haven't registered yet, but you can remedy that by clicking on the link below. You are also welcome to invite others in your district to join us as well.

Things will become a little more certain next week, following the November 3 election. Given the record-setting voter turnout statewide, it may take a little longer than usual before we know exactly what the membership of the Texas Legislature will be, but we will soon know who is going to fill the seats and make up the 87th Texas Legislature. And once that membership is set, it's not a stretch to think that things will then become clear regarding who may become the next Speaker of the Texas House.

The thing that will remain uncertain far longer than who's who in the Legislature is how much those legislators will have to spend as part of the next state budget cycle. Economic recovery is beginning to slow, and that makes for some pretty ambiguous estimations regarding what state revenue may be available for FY22-23. With public education as the leading expenditure for the state, that leaves the future of school funding uncertain.

Our new talking points address the:

We also have an updated presentation that you are welcome to download for use in your district and community to provide an overview of the Statewide Economic Outlook & the Potential Impact on School Funding.

You can access the presentation slides with speaker's notes or a PDF of the presentation (though that doesn't include the notes).

The above presentation was redesigned from what Christy Rome delivered to the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees earlier this week. Don't forget that we'll do anything possible to try to accommodate a request for a similar presentation in your district. All you have to do is ask!

Last week, you received a lot of information regarding school district fund balances, including your district's numbers in the manner that legislators will likely see them. This is definitely an issue that deserves some of your attention. Just in case you missed them, please see the resources available via the links below to communicate with your local legislators and members of your community:

Texans for Local Schools is the grassroots community network of the Texas School Coalition. While the Coalition is an organization of member school districts, and we will provide information and resources specific to school districts, Texans for Local Schools is designed for members of your community.

The website itself, texansforlocalschools.org, is developed to provide information and resources for community members, and interested individuals can sign up to receive email communications during the legislative session when important developments occur. This is information you may want to consider passing along to your local PTA/PTO organizations in your district or other community groups who may have interest.