College Station, Texas (KBTX) – Texas public schools are down by roughly 76,000 students this year — the steepest decline in nearly four decades — and the effects are reaching College Station ISD.
Superintendent Tim Harkrider says the district lost about 300 students this past year after more than a decade of steady growth, and he projects losing another 100 next year — not counting the potential impact of school vouchers.
The financial hit is significant. For every 100 students lost, the district loses roughly $1 million in state funding.
Fighting Back With Open Enrollment
The CSISD board recently approved out-of-district transfers, allowing students outside district boundaries to apply to attend CSISD campuses. Twenty-five students are already approved for the 2026-27 school year.
“Our state leadership has made it pretty clear that they want competition and parents to have choice. So in our opinion, we need to play the game and not play the victim,” Harkrider said.
Cuts as a Last Resort
So far, the district has avoided layoffs and program cuts, relying on attrition and tighter supply budgets. Some central office staff members have been moved to campus positions. Harkrider said closing campuses or cutting programs — athletics, fine arts, CTE — remain worst-case scenarios.
The board is also set to approve a staff pay raise, reaffirming its commitment to retaining educators.
A Push for Funding Reform
Harkrider’s bigger concern is the state’s funding formula. Public schools are funded on attendance, while charter schools are funded on enrollment — a gap he says costs CSISD roughly $4 million a year.
“We think we should be funded on the enrollment piece. We’ve had those conversations before and hadn’t got a lot of traction, but I think that’s something that would help level the playing field and create equity with the expectations for charter schools with public money and public schools with public money as well,” Harkrider said.
He plans to advocate for the change during the 2027 legislative session.
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