It is back-to-school time in Texas, and in a political season that means education plans are arriving almost as quickly as school-supply lists.
It is good to see Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa make public education central to the governor’s race. Hinojosa is calling for higher teacher pay, less high-stakes testing, stronger neighborhood schools and an end to state takeovers. Abbott, who is asking us for a 4th term as Governor, is emphasizing reading and math intervention, teacher recruitment, reduced classroom screen time and greater scrutiny of education spending.
It is a debate Texas needs to have.
Abbott’s latest proposal announced this week, would require school districts to direct at least 70% of its spending “into the classroom.” It would also require audits of districts with poor academic performance or suspected administrative bloat. And, Abbott says Texas should eliminate mandates that cost schools money without improving education.
There is some irony in imposing a new statewide spending mandate while promising to free districts from unnecessary state mandates.
That raised a familiar rural question: Will the same policy work equally well in Houston and Spearman?
Texas has more than 1,000 school districts serving communities with dramatically different enrollment, geography, demographics and resources. One size rarely fits all of Texas—and it almost never fits rural Texas.
Many rural districts have shrinking enrollment and smaller classes from year to year. They face changing demographics, difficulty recruiting certified teachers and limited housing for new employees. Yet we can agree that rural students deserve the same academic, career and extracurricular opportunities available elsewhere.
Providing those opportunities may require transporting students to another community for welding, health science or dual-credit courses. It may require sharing teachers, investing in technology or paying more to recruit someone qualified to teach a hardto- fill subject.
A rural district may run buses across hundreds of square miles—bringing children to school and transporting them to extracurricular activities—while serving only a fraction of the students enrolled in an urban district. In rural Texas, that bus is part of delivering an education.
So are counselors, nurses, librarians, specialeducation diagnosticians, principals and security officers. They may not stand in front of a classroom all day, but classrooms cannot operate without them.
Rural schools often have fewer students, but they do not have fewer responsibilities.
Abbott can point to two major school-finance investments during his tenure: the landmark 2019 reforms and the $8.5 billion package approved in 2025. That new funding was spread across two years, with approximately half going to teacher and staff compensation— including meaningful raises for experienced rural teachers. Most of the remainder was divided among designated purposes such as operating costs, special education and school safety.
Meanwhile, the basic allotment—the foundation of school funding and the money districts can use with the greatest local flexibility— had remained frozen at $6,160 per student for six years while inflation rose more than 20%. The 2025 package effectively increased it by only $55, to $6,215.
The $8.5 billion headline is accurate, but it does not mean local boards received $8.5 billion to allocate according to their communities’ needs. Nor did it restore the purchasing power schools lost to inflation The state increasingly divides education funding into separate allotments, attaches requirements and tells districts how the money must be spent. Every legislative session also brings new policies, training and reports.
I was recently shown the Texas Association of School Boards’ guidance explaining the laws passed during the last legislative session. The manual was roughly two inches thick.
Every requirement in that manual must be read, interpreted, implemented, documented and sometimes reported to the Texas Education Agency. The state cannot continually add responsibilities and then criticize districts for employing the people needed to carry them out.
Texas may need to get its own house in order first.
A recent State Auditor’s report found that TEA had one manager for every 3.5 nonmanagerial employees, compared with a statutory standard of one for every 11 unless an exemption is approved. From 2021 to 2025, TEA’s management staff grew 38%, while management salary costs increased nearly 64%. Auditors also identified inconsistent monitoring of some state grants, although they found that TEA generally followed procurement, contracting and granta dministration requirements.
And if Texas is going to lean into greater scrutiny of public-school districts, shouldn’t the same standard also apply to its new $1 billion voucher program? Of course it should. Yet, participating private schools do not face the same A–F ratings, open-meetings requirements, electedboard oversight, or operational and funding mandates imposed on local public schools.
Texas has allowed it’s own TEA to operate at a different standard and granted private schools receiving public money substantial autonomy while moving toward greater state control of public schools.
Local flexibility does not mean avoiding accountability. But accountability does not require Austin to make every local decision.
The simple, and better approach is to increase the basic allotment, adjust it for inflation, eliminate unnecessary mandates and give locally elected boards greater flexibility over how the money is used.
The state should establish expectations, protect taxpayers and demand results. Local communities should decide whether their schools most urgently need another teacher, counselor, bus, security officer or administrator.
Rural schools do not need less accountability. They need the flexibility to serve the children standing in front of them—not the hypothetical district imagined in Austin.
About the Author Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers and Texas Rural Reporter column. Subscribe at Tex a s R u ra l Re p o rt e r. Substack. com.