Texas school districts have been waiting with baited breath to hear the fate of Texas’ application to the U.S. Department of Education for initial funding under the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) Program. The Texas application was approved Friday, July 24.
The approval means districts will receive nearly two billion dollars in new funding starting with the 2009–10 school year. It also means that educator pay raises are mandatory and school districts can move forward with budgeting and adopting salary plans for the next school year, much to the relief of business managers, board members, and teachers.
The fiscal stabilization funds were appropriated for public education funding in H.B 3646 during the recently concluded state legislative session. In addition to providing districts with at least $120 per student in weighted average daily attendance (WADA) for 2009–10, the bill also requires that a certain amount of funding be spent on pay raises for full-time teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors, and speech pathologists. According to the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) July issue of Texas Education Today 
, this “salary increase must be maintained through 2010–11 but a second increase is not required for 2010–11.”
Districts are not required to use their SFSF to pay for the mandatory pay increases but, in some cases, may have no other funds available. In fact, TEA encourages districts to use other funding sources if possible. A letter from TEA dated July 30 announces the availability of the eGrant application and states the following:
“Please note that LEAs are not required to use SFSF to finance the pay raise provided by HB 3646. To avoid a funding cliff and because of the detailed record keeping that will be required for those whose salaries are paid fully or in part with stimulus funds, districts are encouraged to finance the pay raise with other state and local funds while utilizing their limited SFSF to advance educational reforms and improving student achievement in the four areas described below.”
The pay raise mandate requires districts to increase the monthly salary of eligible, full-time staff by the greater of $80 per month or the maximum uniform amount that may be provided using an amount equal to the product of $60 multiplied by the number of students in WADA for 2009–10. This increase is in addition to any step increment for experience the employee would have received on the district’s 2008–09 salary schedule, as if that schedule were in effect for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 school year. This is the minimum increase for the specified employees. Districts may give more.
The mandatory pay raise applies to teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, and, for the first time, speech pathologists. If a district pays speech pathologists on a local pay plan that does not include step increments correlated to years of service, then no step increase is required. The bill does not add speech pathologists to the group of professionals subject to state minimum salary requirements.
Although there is no official posting on TEA’s Web Site, the agency’s newsletter indicates that HB 3646 delays any changes to the state minimum salary schedule until 2012. Nonetheless, local districts have to pay teachers at least $800 more than they earned in 2008–09 for the next two years. This means that virtually all school districts will pay above the state minimum salary schedule. The application process for SFSF became available through TEA eGrants on Aug. 3. District applications are due by Sept. 30.
