ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Identifying which elementary schools to close next is on the San Angelo ISD School Board’s agenda for its Tuesday meeting.
The two prime candidates are Reagan and Bowie elementaries, while Santa Rita and Glenmore could be up for consideration in a future round, and many readers have asked “Why are they closing schools?”
The answer is a long story of changing demographics, economic conditions and legislative neglect — or outright hostility — to the public school system, so let’s take a look back and explore how we got to this point.
The Funding Piece
We have to start with funding, 56% of which comes from local property taxes with a state contribution currently at 27%.
The problem has been the way the legislature has treated public school funding like a yo-yo they can play with.
It has gone up and down over the past 20 years, not only with the economy, but also with the politics surrounding public education.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
During the last session Governor Abbott responded to criticism by saying the state was spending more money on public education than it ever has–$15,000 per student.
According to a detailed analysis of Abbott’s claim by the Texas Tribune last year, this narrative is misleading at best — and an outright lie at worst.
The $15,000 figure is not reflective of the money districts receive from the state to serve students, which according to the Tribune, has stagnated since 2019.
The base amount of money districts receive from the state to educate each student at the time the article was written was $6,160. This was recently increased from $6,215 in the last legislative session.
The Texas Tribune report stated, “When you divide the total state budget for education using the most recent finalized data available from the state ($85.3 billion during the 2022-23 school year) by the number of public-school students (about 5.5 million), the result is $15,503 — an all-time high.”
“That number includes federal, state and local revenue sources. It also factors in more than $900 in temporary federal funds schools received during the COVID-19 pandemic — known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER — which have mostly expired.”
School spending vs. spending for Student Education
The Tribune’s analysis found that districts use that $15,503 to cover the costs of student support services, teacher salaries, non-instructional staff and building maintenance.
“It is used to pay for things that do not directly go to districts, ranging from services provided by state and federal vendors to the Texas Education Agency’s administrative costs. The figure also includes $487 per student for state contributions to the Teacher Retirement System.”
Those numbers are not adjusted for inflation and the Tribune reported that taking that into account the amount of funding per pupil had gone down from 2021 to 2023. This was the most recent year comprehensive data was available to analyze by the Tribune.
So underfunding of public education, marked by occasional increases in funding, is the story of school finance in Texas. It is also doubtful that the increase in funding from the legislature in 2025 would have happened except as a bribe by the Governor and Lt. Governor to help vouchers pass.
Public education spending in Texas is far behind almost all other states. Texas consistently ranks in the bottom 10th of all states for public education funding. It currently sits at around 42 out of the 50 states. According to the Texas State Teachers Association, Texas spends $4,000 less per student than the national average.
Demographics and Increased Competition
The other factors — all of which are related in some way to funding, are the demographic changes and increased competition from charter, and now private schools, under the voucher program.
The primary culprits for SAISD are:
- Declining enrollment
- Declining revenue
- Staff shortages
Declining Enrollment
Currently SAISD enrollment is 13,004. It is projected that in the next ten years enrollment will drop to somewhere between 10,453 and 11,747 by the 2034-2035 school year.
The Texas Demographic Center projects that San Angelo’s population grow will grow by around 6,000 people by 2030. But digging deeper into the data, that number appears to be ambitious. The projection between 2020 and 2030 is that population will have grown by around 4,740.
The San Angleo school age population is expected to drop by around 200 during that time, from 21,380 (2020) to 21,186 (2030)
San Angelo’s population 50 years and above will grow by 1,177 from 39,916 (2020) to 41,039 (2030).
This demonstrates the expected result of an aging population, and young people having fewer children or no children.
Declining Revenue
Declining enrollment translates to declining revenue for SAISD. This is because state funding is based on the Average Daily Attendance at a school district. The amount per student is $6,215.
But since the amount provided depends attendance and not enrollment, declining enrollment means declining attendance.
This translates to declining revenue.
Yet the public schools are mandated by law to be ready and able to educate every student in their district regardless of whether they enroll or show up.
Enrollment at SAISD as of January 7, 2026 was 12,339. SAISD has lost 420 students since May of 2025.
SAISD Administrators project this drop in enrollment will result in a decrease for the first (fall) semester of the 2025-2026 school year of $2,128,000.00.
The projected loss of revenue by May of 2027 is $4,357,500.00.
With these type of losses SAISD could soon be facing deficit budgets, something it has not yet had to do.
The projected savings to the District of closing one elementary school is $925,695.00. Simple math tells you that if you close two elementary schools instead, the savings should total $1,905,390. In other words, not enough to offset the projected $2.1 million shortfall in revenue this fall.
Staff Shortages
Another problem the District faces, along with every other school district in the state, is the shortage of teachers and staff needed to educate our students.
SAISD is currently short 30 classroom teachers, 27 manual-trades teachers, and 21 paraprofessionals. To fill that gap, the district is relying on long-term substitutes and rehiring retired teachers.
But for every retired teacher the district rehires there is a penalty we have to pay to the state.
For fiscal year 2025, SAISD had to pay the state $124,497.51 in penalties.
According to SAISD Superintendent Dr. Christopher Moran, Texas teachers leave the teaching profession at a rate 25-percent higher than the national average.
Texas teachers leaving the profession have been as high as 12% in recent years, while new teacher certifications have declined by 20% over the last decade.
In short, more Texas teachers are leaving the profession than entering it, indicating that teaching does not appear to be an attractive career for young people graduating from college.
Long Range Plan
The result is a plan to close two to four more elementary schools over the next few years.
The idea is for the number of available seats for students in SAISD to more closely match the number of students the district will be serving over the next decade.
SAISD cannot maintain the level of spending and the number of schools we were used to in the past. The Board of Trustees and the community have some hard times and difficult decisions ahead.
It is wise to confront them head on now and not push the decision down the road any further. Dr. Moran and the Board of Trustees are to be commended for making the difficult decisions.
