Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has picked four school districts for a detailed review of whether their spending reaches classrooms or feeds administration. His office announced October 5 that the Austin, Barbers Hill, El Paso and Prosper independent school districts will be examined, with a final report due by December 31.
The four range widely in size. Austin ISD enrolled 69,074 students in the 2025-26 school year, El Paso ISD 46,244, Prosper ISD 33,583 and Barbers Hill ISD 8,088, according to the comptroller’s office.
The review will examine whether district spending “complies with state law and is directed toward students, classrooms, and teachers,” rather than toward administrative expansion or bureaucracy, the office said. “This review is an important step to ensure transparency, accountability, and the responsible use of public funds,” Huffines said.
Gov. Greg Abbott asked for the review on August 19. He requested that the comptroller examine up to four districts of varying size and location, and he cited the $104.9 billion in taxpayer funds spent on K-12 education. “It is our collective responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars directly reach students, classrooms, and teachers, rather than central-office growth, administrative bloat, consultants, and the web of noninstructional bureaucracy,” Abbott said. He set the December 31 deadline so the 90th Legislature can consider reforms.
Abbott singled out Austin ISD in August. He pointed to a 14 percent enrollment decline from 2015 to 2025 alongside a 75 percent increase in administrative spending per student, the Texas Tribune reported. Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said in August that more than 75 percent of the district’s general fund goes to classroom-level spending this year, and that the governor’s figures covered a 10-year span. “Certainly, when you use that duration, things can be presented a certain way,” Segura said. The district restructured its central office in June 2025 and made further cuts this summer.
Texas districts already file independently audited financial statements with the Texas Education Agency each year. The comptroller’s review goes further, testing how each district spends the money Texans send it, in time for the 90th Legislature to act on what it finds.
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