Dallas ISD board member Ben Mackey said Thursday that state lawmakers’ massive $8.5 billion funding package passed in the recent session falls short of funding in place before COVID 19.
Mackey made his remarks during the Margaret J. Hirsch Women's Forum, partnering with United to Learn and D Magazine. It took place at the Communities Foundation. The topic was school funding and this year’s legislative session.
Mackey said because state education funding hadn’t changed since 2019, the $8.5 billon was welcomed. He said Dallas ISD has operated a deficit budget for several years now, with progressively smaller budgets. This year the district was left with a $100 million deficit.
Thanks to well managed reserves, Mackey said the district is OK — but that may not last, as trustees and the administration may eventually need to cut some programs.
“Obviously the district would love to see funding be restored to 2021, 2019 levels, pre-pandemic,” he said. “The legislature made a big effort this year. $8.5 billion is great. That's going to be super helpful, and we would love see some more.
“But fundamentally, we're not waiting on that.”
Mackey also mentioned the likelihood that he and fellow trustees next year would discuss sending a multi-billion dollar bond package to voters for their approval. Voters last okayed a $3.5 billion bond measure in 2020.
“At that time,” said Mackey, “we had about $6 billion in deferred maintenance, so that already is a $2.5 billion gap.”
He expects the floor for next year’s bond proposal would be $3.5 billion. The request to voters could realistically rise to $3.6 or $3.7 billion, he said, but there will be a lot of discussion among trustees in the next year before anything’s final.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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