Dear Angleton ISD Community;

The 88th Texas Legislature reached the end of its regular session and has not produced any significant legislation to improve school funding.  The Texas Legislature has yet to provide funds that would allow or address teacher pay raises, raise funding for schools to address inflation and costs of living, nor provide any significant increase in funding for school safety.  This inaction comes on the heels of rampant inflation, a crippling pandemic that negatively affected student academic achievement, increased student enrollment growth, and teachers leaving the profession at an alarming rate.  It should also be noted that a state task force was convened before this legislative session began to address teacher shortages, and its primary recommendation was to provide funds that trained teachers and found ways to keep them in the profession longer.

This legislative session, Texas lawmakers had a $32.7 billion budget that should have allowed for property tax relief and better funding of our public schools.  Instead, the Texas Senate and the Governor have chosen to focus their efforts politically by stalling on adequately funding the TEXAS public schools and, ultimately, our Angleton ISD schools, teachers, and staff that educate the Wildcat community.

If our state lawmakers continue to take no action on providing public school funding, the 2023/2024 school year budget will be a very challenging one for not only Angleton ISD, but for all public schools in our county and state.  Nevertheless, I am committed to providing a quality education for all our students.

I am asking for you to join me in requesting that our legislative representatives take action to provide our teachers with needed pay raises, increase the basic allotment for schools so that we can continue to provide our students with the needed services and support for them to be successful, and increase funding for school safety and security.

Our representatives can be reached at:

Governor Greg Abbott

www.governor.state.tx.us

Or

https://gov.texas.gov/contact

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick

(512) 463-5342 or (512) 463-0001

https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/contact/

Senator Mayes Middleton

512-463-0111

Mayes.Middleton@senate.tx.gov

Representative Cody Vasut

979-8481770

cody.vasut@house.texas.gov

Your Voice Matters!

Phil Edwards

Superintendent

Angleton ISD