Education
BY ELLA BARNES & EMILY LINCKE
In ation, enrollment impacting CFISD budget Despite eorts to decrease a projected budget shortfall in Cy-Fair ISD, ocials said factors like ination and declining enrollment could worsen the shortfall in future school years. What’s new The scal year 2025-26 shortfall increased by roughly $20,000 since a March 2 board meeting to $33.7 million . The projection is still less than the initial $45.5 million shortfall estimation in June 2025 as previously reported by Community Impact . CFISD Chief Financial Ocer Karen Smith said the decline in enrollment and use of homestead exemptions were key impacts to the shortfall. CFISD saw a 2.7% decrease in enrollment as of October 2025 from the 2024-2025 school year. Smith attributed this decline to a lack of new children in the district. Similarly, Smith said a statewide 24% ination
Lone Star College keeps tuition rates On April 2, the Lone Star College System’s board of trustees approved unchanged tuition rates for the 2026-27 school year and discussed lowering the rates in the future. What happened During the LSCS trustees’ regular April 2 meeting, trustees unanimously approved the proposed tuition rates for the 2026-27 school year. According to April 2 meeting documents, the rates will remain at $111 per credit hour for in-district students and $249 per credit hour for out-of-district students. The cost for international/out-of-state students is $313 per credit hour. Trustees tasked the district’s Audit and Finance Committee with evaluating potential tuition changes and bringing information to the board in the future.
Consumer Price Index increases
U.S.
Texas
$400
$300
$200
$100
0
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
SOURCE: CYFAIR ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT
increase from Sept. 2019-Aug. 2025 has not been factored into state funding formulas. Smith said while private schools are able to increase tuition costs to catch up with ination, public schools are not. Several expenditure increases are expected in the next budget cycle, including $4.6 million for Virtual Pathways implementation and $2 million for textbooks not covered by the Instruction Materials Technology Allotment.
Cy-Fair, Klein ISDs have highest superintendent pay
Top ve highest & lowest paid superintendents Greater Houston-area school districts
$0 $100K $200K $300K $400K $500K $600K
Highest paid
Lowest paid
2025-26 school year. According to the TEA data, the ve Greater Houston-area school districts with the highest- earning superintendents for the 2025-26 school year are Cy-Fair ISD, Klein ISD, Katy ISD and Houston ISD. Cy-Fair, Klein and Houston ISDs also had the top student enrollments out of the 30 schools analyzed.
In the 2025-26 school year, Cy-Fair and Klein ISDs had the highest-paid superintendents in the Greater Houston area, according to Texas Educa- tion Agency data released March 16. The big picture Community Impact analyzed data from the TEA to learn about compensation for superintendents, teachers and sta at public school districts for the
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCYCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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CYPRESS EDITION
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