Education
Leander ISD will make around $17 million in budget cuts to reduce its projected $34.4 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26. Next school year, the district will cut about $12.8 million in positions across its campuses and $3 million in administrative positions at its central office, which it is expecting to lose through natural attrition, Superintendent Bruce Gearing said. Additionally, the district will discontinue its $2 million Empowerment Grant Fund, which the district started last school year to provide grants to staff members. LISD announced the cuts to staff members in a letter from Gearing on Feb. 5. The district’s grow- ing budgetary constraints come amid stagnant Leander ISD to cut more than 200 sta positions
funding from the state and cuts to federal funding, Gearing said. “We should not be in this position,” Gearing said. “The state had $4.5 billion appropriated for public education last session, and they left it sitting on the table. ... We have to fund public schools.” With the 2025 state legislative session under- way, the House and Senate have both drafted budgets that would increase funding for public education by about $4.9 billion. Gov. Greg Abbott announced providing teacher pay raises as his third emergency item at the State of the State address Feb. 2. “Public education funding is at an all-time high,” Abbott said at the Feb. 2 event. “But improving education requires more than just spending more money. It requires high-level instruction and better curriculum.” The overview LISD will cut over 200 positions from its budget next school year, including around 150 teachers, as it works to reduce a mounting budget shortfall.
LISD announced the district will make $17 million in budget reductions, including cutting over 200 positions.
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