CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — State lawmakers are expected to head back to Austin in the coming weeks for a special session focusing on education.
And one local superintendent says he hopes they do take action.
"We are writing a check to the state of Texas for $5.5 million in recapture funds, and we are not able financially to give our teachers a raise," said Tuloso-Midway Superintendent Steve VanMatre.
VanMatre said his district is a victim of the state's Robin Hood funding plan, which sends money from rich school districts to others less fortunate by virtue of the fact that the district is near refineries.
While he believes that needs to change, he also says state lawmakers need to better fund our public-school system.
"We have to do something with school public ed funding,” he said. “We haven't had an increase in the basic allotment since House Bill 3, which was 2019."
Abbott has made it clear that he wants to see his school choice plan enacted by lawmakers.
That would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to take their children out of public education and pay for private schooling or a charter school.
"I do not support vouchers,” said Dist. 20 State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa. “I do support public schools. Public schools are now in need of additional funding to cut back on the shortage of teachers. Too many teachers are leaving because of the lack of pay and lack of support."
State Rep. J.M. Lozano also said he does not support vouchers but is instead looking at education savings accounts to be an option to give parents.
"Basically, what that entails is that it does not come from public-education funding,” he said. “It's money that comes from the comptroller's office to the school where the parent wants to send their child."
Those funds would still be taxpayer dollars.
3NEWS asked Lozano where that money would be coming from, and he believed it would be taken from economic-development efforts.