Educate Texas - Philanthropy Advocates

In 2011, the Texas Legislature approved historic cuts to funding for public education. Foundations across Texas saw successful public/private partnerships threatened or eliminated by budget cuts. Demand for scarce foundation dollars also increased as community groups saw their revenues eliminated from school district budgets.

In response, Philanthropy Advocates commissioned our first research study in 2012, focused on understanding the effects of the 2011 Texas Legislature’s public education budget cuts. Philanthropy Advocates remains aware of the tension between philanthropic dollars supplementing, not supplanting, state dollars and has conducted research to articulate the effects of reduced state investment in public and higher education.

Philanthropy Advocates was formerly known as the Texas Education Grantmakers Advocacy Consortium (TEGAC) until August 2020. Previously-created resources, documents and blog posts mentioning TEGAC are still provided on this website for your reference.

Consequences of the Texas Public School Funding Hole of 2011-16

In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut $5.4 billion from the two-year public education budget. This report explores the consequences of these cuts, with a particular focus on equity as applied to school finance.

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Doing More With Less: Public Education in a New Fiscal Reality

The first collaborative project through TEGAC was an objective and thorough exploration of how $5.4 billion in cuts to public education impacted Texas schools and students after the 2011 Legislative Session. Member foundations from across Texas pooled their funds to commission a Houston-based nonprofit, Children At Risk, to undertake a year-long, mixed-methods statewide study to objectively assess how budget reductions impacted public schools – for better or for worse. Hundreds of school districts responded to the voluntary survey.

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