3. Where the money goes¶
General Fund spending by function, FY2019 to FY2027¶
| Function | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basis | Audited | Audited | Audited | Audited | Audited | Audited | Audited | Amended budget (June 2026) | Adopted budget |
| Instruction | $970.8M | $996.4M | $1,081.4M | $980.1M | $1,037.3M | $1,151.0M | $1,261.9M | $1,242.3M | $1,148.0M |
| School leadership (principals, assistant principals) | $142.3M | $149.5M | $146.4M | $146.7M | $162.2M | $215.4M | $234.3M | $217.3M | $215.4M |
| Instructional leadership | $20.8M | $21.0M | $23.9M | $24.2M | $22.5M | $63.1M | $68.4M | $77.1M | $79.6M |
| Plant maintenance & operations | $195.9M | $192.5M | $211.9M | $218.9M | $227.6M | $235.3M | $215.1M | $181.2M | $196.9M |
| Guidance & counseling | $50.3M | $60.1M | $63.5M | $59.3M | $65.1M | $64.7M | $67.6M | $58.8M | $56.6M |
| Transportation | $59.2M | $53.6M | $46.4M | $51.9M | $52.3M | $57.0M | $52.2M | $52.8M | $50.4M |
| General administration | $41.1M | $32.1M | $32.7M | $37.5M | $41.1M | $53.1M | $51.2M | $51.7M | $52.2M |
| Data processing | $55.0M | $62.0M | $65.8M | $58.2M | $51.2M | $58.4M | $44.2M | $42.1M | $42.5M |
| Security | $22.6M | $24.2M | $27.5M | $30.0M | $31.4M | $32.1M | $30.5M | $33.4M | $35.6M |
| Health | $19.3M | $21.3M | $48.1M | $31.2M | $26.7M | $24.2M | $26.0M | $23.2M | $24.5M |
| Extracurricular | $15.5M | $16.1M | $14.5M | $16.5M | $21.0M | $25.3M | $25.8M | $23.6M | $22.6M |
| Instructional staff development | $29.3M | $29.2M | $33.2M | $31.6M | $29.1M | $25.8M | $14.3M | $12.7M | $10.7M |
| Recapture (payments to the state) | $265.2M | $80.8M | $197.8M | $184.5M | $276.4M | $0 | $56.9M | $0 | $0 |
| Payments into city tax-increment zones (TIRZ) | $58.5M | $61.3M | $61.5M | $66.0M | $72.4M | $75.5M | $56.1M | $54.2M | $44.7M |
| Other (social work, media, food service, community services, appraisal fees, debt, capital, juvenile justice AEP) | $45.4M | $63.4M | $63.9M | $56.3M | $58.7M | $68.3M | $46.4M | $39.0M | $35.3M |
| Total General Fund | $1,991.2M | $1,863.6M | $2,118.5M | $1,992.9M | $2,175.0M | $2,149.2M | $2,251.0M | $2,109.4M | $2,015.0M |
| Excluding recapture and TIRZ, per enrolled student | $7,949 | $8,195 | $9,440 | $8,954 | $9,615 | $11,263 | $12,098 | $12,248 | $11,955 |
Sources: HISD's audited ACFRs, FY2019-FY2025; FY2026 from HISD's General Fund Budget Amendment #2 (June 11, 2026); FY2027 from HISD's adopted FY2027 budget (June 25, 2026). Per-student figures use HISD's enrollment from the ACFR for FY2019-FY2025, TEA's fall 2025 count (167,793) for FY2026 and HISD's projection (164,812) for FY2027; TEA's count ran 0.3-0.4% below HISD's in FY2023-FY2025. Data: data/hisd_gf_function_fy2019_2027.csv.
- FY2019 to FY2025 (audited): General Fund instruction rose 30%, school leadership 65%, and instructional leadership more than tripled, most of it from FY2023 on, while enrollment fell 16%. General Fund spending per student, excluding recapture and TIRZ payments, rose 52%. Consumer prices (CPI-U, June 2019 to June 2025) rose about 26% over the same period.
- Part of the General Fund growth is costs moving off federal grants. From FY2023 to FY2025, General Fund instruction rose 21.7%, but instruction across all governmental funds rose only 0.4% ($1,427.3M to $1,432.5M), because grant-funded instruction fell from $390.0M to $170.6M as ESSER ended. Leadership grew across all funds too: school leadership 43.9% ($168.4M to $242.3M) and instructional leadership 91.8% ($43.8M to $83.9M). Which positions moved from grants to the General Fund cannot be told from these statements. (Source: governmental funds statements of revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balances, FY2023 and FY2025 ACFRs.)
- FY2026 and FY2027 (budgets): HISD plans to cut instruction to $1,148.0 million in FY2027, $113.9 million below FY2025's actual. School leadership is budgeted about $19 million below FY2025, and instructional leadership keeps growing. Neither year is audited. In FY2025, actual General Fund spending came in $150.7 million over the adopted budget and $74.7 million over the final amended budget.
Across all governmental funds (General, Special Revenue, Debt Service, Capital Projects), total spending was $3.472 billion (FY2023), $3.441 billion (FY2024) and $3.151 billion (FY2025) — falling, because grant-funded (largely ESSER COVID-relief) spending fell sharply. The General Fund, which pays for ongoing operations, kept growing.
Payroll is 77-79% of General Fund spending ($1.742 billion in FY2025). Contracted services were $336.9 million in FY2025, including recapture. HISD's budget books allocate $55.9 million (FY2025) and $67.2 million (FY2026) to contracted charter schools and its virtual school option, mostly Texas Connections Academy. TEA's campus data shows Texas Connections alone spent $56.5 million from the General Fund in 2024-25.
Spending per student compared to peer districts, 2024-25¶
All funds, operating spending only, per enrolled student (TEA actual data):
| District | Total | Instruction | Instr. leadership | School leadership | Gen. admin. | Contracted services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston ISD | $14,147 | $7,996 | $474 | $1,369 | $336 | $1,893 |
| Dallas ISD | 14,210 | 7,206 | 374 | 850 | 439 | 1,067 |
| Austin ISD | 14,703 | 8,035 | 298 | 895 | 377 | 1,243 |
| Fort Worth ISD | 13,908 | 7,463 | 245 | 781 | 332 | 1,432 |
| Northside ISD | 12,278 | 7,125 | 209 | 638 | 180 | 732 |
| Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | 11,194 | 6,934 | 119 | 572 | 155 | 593 |
| Katy ISD | 12,333 | 7,731 | 102 | 641 | 213 | 501 |
| Fort Bend ISD | 11,651 | 6,526 | 256 | 648 | 263 | 835 |
| State average | 12,951 | 7,064 | 227 | 752 | 424 | 1,321 |
HISD's operating spending per student over time: $10,524 (2020-21), $12,998 (2022-23), $14,337 (2023-24), $14,147 (2024-25). HISD serves a higher-need student population than most of its large-district peers — 77.8% economically disadvantaged (state average 60.5%) and 39.2% emergent bilingual (state average 24.3%) — which is part, though not all, of why its spending and its school-leadership and instructional-leadership lines in particular run well above the state average and above its suburban-district neighbors.
2025-26 as budgeted¶
TEA's actual data for 2025-26 is not yet published. The budgets districts filed with TEA show the same pattern for the General Fund:
| General Fund operating spending per student | HISD 2024-25 actual | HISD 2025-26 budget (as filed with TEA) | State total 2025-26 budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instruction | $7,092 | $7,356 | $6,972 |
| Instructional leadership | $387 | $475 | $205 |
| School leadership | $1,324 | $1,307 | $756 |
| General administration | $292 | $354 | $449 |
| Total operating | $11,825 | $12,151 | $12,057 |
Sources: TEA PEIMS actual financial data, 2024-25; TEA "2025-2026 Budgeted Financial Data," Houston ISD and State Total. General Fund only, operating spending (excludes recapture, TIRZ and debt). Per TEA-counted enrolled student. Data: data/tea_peims_actuals_long.csv, data/tea_peims_budget_long.csv.
HISD's 2025-26 budget puts instructional leadership at 2.3 times the state budgeted rate per student and school leadership at 1.7 times. Its total budgeted General Fund operating spending per student is 0.8% above the state's.
Staffing and pay¶
| FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basis | TEA (TAPR), except total employees (ACFR) | same | same | Budgeted (HISD budget book) | HISD projection |
| Teachers (full-time equivalent) | 10,543 | 11,378 | 10,590 | 10,199 (all funds) | — |
| Campus administrators | 581 | 852 | 899 | — | — |
| Total employees | 23,098 | 22,156 | 20,532 | 19,479 (budgeted FTE, all funds) | — |
| Average teacher salary | $64,954 | $67,073 | $73,604 | — | $83,338 (HISD's own measure) |
| Teacher turnover rate | 22.3% | 19.7% | 32.2% (state 18.8%) | — | — |
| Students per teacher | 18.0 | 16.1 | 16.6 (state 15.0) | — | — |
Sources: TEA Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR), 2022-23 to 2024-25 (2025-26 not yet published); total employees FY2023-FY2025 from HISD's audited ACFR statistical section (FTE plus hourly, excluding substitutes), which is not the same count as the budget book's budgeted FTE for FY2026; HISD's FY2026 adopted budget book (FTE tables); HISD's May 20, 2026 budget workshop (salary projection). HISD's own salary measure puts 2022-23 at $68,527, above TAPR's $64,954, so the FY2027 projection is not directly comparable with the TAPR columns.
Campus administrators rose 55% while enrollment fell 7% over the same period. Librarian positions fell from 154 to 50 budgeted, and social worker positions from 34 to 12, between FY2024 and FY2026. Central-office staffing was cut by about 1,500 positions between November 2023 and June 2024, with further cuts of about 348 FTEs (FY2026) and 205 positions (FY2027).
HISD pays the highest average teacher salary among the eight peer districts examined. Its new pay-for-performance salary scale runs $70,000 to $92,000, with teachers at NES campuses receiving an additional $6,000 to $9,000. 7.0% of HISD's teachers have no college degree, versus a 2.4% state average.