UnRAPPed | The LISD Budget

  • LISD believes in the importance of all stakeholders understanding the basics of how our district receives its funds, and where the funds are being allocated once they are collected. School finance is a complicated topic, but we’ve broken down a few important topics to give the community a snapshot of how public school funding works in Texas. In LISD, we advocate for as much of the taxpayer dollars as possible to remain in our district where they benefit the communities we serve.

    Revenue

    Texas school district revenue is made up of three different sources: local, state and federal funds.

    The funding formula for Texas public schools begins with a per-student allotment called the “Basic Allotment”. From there, adjustments are made based on school district characteristics such as the size of the district, and various student characteristics such as low-income, emergent bilingual and special education, determining the district’s “entitlement”, or how much revenue a school district is allowed to receive to operate its schools. 

    Local Revenue - 86% of LISD’s operating budget comes from Local Revenue.
    Local property taxes are first collected to meet a school district’s funding entitlement. If a school district collects more than its entitlement through property taxes, the state “recaptures”, or takes back, the excess funds. LISD is estimated to send approximately $54 million of local property taxes back to the state in recapture for the 2022-23 school year. More to come on that topic.

    State Revenue - 11% of LISD’s operating budget comes from State Revenue.
    Texas’ share of school funding is made up of six different funds: Available School Fund, Property Tax Relief Fund, Tax Reduction and Education Excellence Fund, Lottery Proceeds, Recapture, and Foundation School Fund (General Revenue). If the state collects more in any of the funds, that does not mean our schools see an increase to the funding provided for our districts.

    Federal Revenue - 3% of LISD’s operating budget comes from Federal Revenue.
    The three things that drive federal revenue in the general fund are: indirect costs from federal fund expenditures, impact aid from federal land surrounding Lake Lewisville, and School Health and Related Services (SHARS) through the Medicaid program.