COVID-19 upended Texas schools’ finances. Now they’re calling for a new funding system.

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas – During a triumphant 2019 ceremony at Parmer Lane Elementary in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott sat on a small stage in front of a large Texas flag as he signed a massive overhaul of the state’s public school finance system.

The new legislation injected $6.5 billion into public education spending, plus about $5.1 billion devoted to lowering Texans’ property tax bills. It included raising the total amount the state gives schools per student by about 20%, setting aside funds for teacher raises and reducing the amount of money wealthy districts would have to send to poorer ones under the state’s recapture program, informally known as “Robin Hood.”

“You could not overstate the magnitude of the law that I’m about to sign because this is a monumental moment in public education history in the state of Texas,” said Abbott, flanked by about a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers. “This one law does more to advance education in Texas than any law I have seen in my adult lifetime.”

Four years later, that same school where the law was signed is one of several campuses in the Pflugerville Independent School District under threat of being closed. The district, which expected a $17 million windfall from the 2019 law, is now grappling with a $12 million budget deficit under the pressure of mounting…