As Houston ISD has undergone a barrage of reforms over the past 18 months, the district’s annual budget has gotten a shake-up, too.
Under the leadership of a state-appointed board and Superintendent Mike Miles, HISD has made new investments in classroom spending and instructional leadership, while cutting back on spending for building maintenance and transportation.
In total, Miles’ administration plans to spend about $2.2 billion on day-to-day operations in 2024-25, which would result in an estimated deficit of about $250 million.
Here’s how HISD’s budget shaped up for 2024-25, and how it looks compared to the prior fiscal year.
Breaking down the budget
HISD’s school board approved the district’s $2.2 billion budget in June, as it usually does, and made a sizable change to it earlier this month. Under Texas law, boards must approve budgets that break down spending into roughly 20-plus categories.
The largest portion of spending — about $1.2 billion, or 55 percent of the budget — would go toward instructional costs. Nearly all of the $1.2 billion goes toward salaries and benefits for teachers and other school employees, with roughly 10 percent accounting for supplies and vendor payments.
The second-biggest cost, at about 10 percent of the budget, is school leadership. This primarily covers the salaries and benefits of principals, assistant principals and campus staff performing more clerical roles.
Maintaining district buildings ranks as the third-highest cost, at about 9 percent of the budget. Slightly less than half of the $210 million budgeted for maintenance pays for employee salaries and benefits, while the rest goes to contractors, supplies and other costs.
In this budget format, spending on HISD’s central office is spread across the various types of costs. Central office budgets are often scrutinized because they cover the salaries of the highest-paid employees, whose compensation accounts for a tiny fraction of total spending in the district.
Tweaking the budget
Compared to how much HISD actually spent in 2023-24, this year’s budget adds in some areas and subtracts in others.
The district’s projected spending on instruction notably grew by about $83 million, as the district continued to expand its campus overhaul model and put more money toward serving students with disabilities.
HISD also expects to send about $57 million back to the state as part of Texas’ revenue sharing system formerly known as “recapture.” Under this model, school districts with a large property tax base relative to their enrollment deliver some of their property tax revenues to the state, which uses that money to help support districts with relatively smaller tax bases. HISD did not send money to the state last year.
As for the sharpest funding drops, HISD plans to cut back on facility and construction spending by about $25 million, or 11 percent, this year. The district has eliminated about one-third of its custodial and maintenance staff since Miles’ arrival in mid-2023.
Not too far off
HISD’s spending patterns largely follow statewide trends, with some small differences.
In 2022-23, the most recent year with available data, districts across Texas spent about 58 percent of their budget on instruction, compared to HISD’s planned 55. HISD’s projected 10 percent of spending on school leadership would exceed the state average of 7 percent.
The budget figures in this story do not include spending on new campuses or paying off old school bonds. Those dollars are kept in a separate fund.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
