Dax Gonzalez, the governmental relations division director at the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), said that much of the state funding for education was allocated to reduce property taxes rather than increasing classroom resources, with only minor adjustments for school safety funding. Gonzalez was a guest on a recent episode of the Texas Talks Podcast.

“A lot of that money isn't classroom-dedicated money," said Gonzalez in a recent edition of the Texas Talks Podcast. “Last session, the bulk of the money that the state spent towards education was to buy down property taxes. That did nothing to increase the amount of money going into the classroom; that was solely to lower school district property tax rates so that homeowners could see a break in their tax bills. That's a worthy goal, but that was $18 billion that the state put towards that funding amount, and none of that was new money for kids.”

“The level, the bucket that the state decides each school gets for school funding, stayed exactly the same," said Gonzalez. “There was some money for school safety that was provided; they did a 28-cent per kid increase in the school safety allotment, and they did a $15,000 per campus allotment, but they also required that every campus have an armed guard."

Gonzalez is the governmental relations division director at the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), a nonprofit organization supporting Texas school boards. Founded in 1949, TASB provides services and advocacy to promote educational excellence for the state's public schoolchildren.

Texas Talks podcast is hosted by Brad Swail. The weekly show is focused on public policy in the state of Texas, with insights from the people and organizations that influence it.

The podcast is available on Simple Cast and YouTube.