APREA welcomes a new member: Texas Permanent School Fund
The Texas Permanent School Fund endowment at 175 years old and counting, serves Texas citizens in two primary ways. First, it helps pay a share of the cost of educating Texas school children by financing the purchase of instructional materials through the State Textbook Fund. During the 2020 fiscal year, the Fund distributed approximately $1.7 billion to fund education, which translates to about $347 per student. This per student allotment guarantees funding to every public school student in the state regardless of school district wealth. Since 1960, the Fund has distributed approximately $31.2 billion
in support of Texas public education. The Fund is prudently managed to ensure that it funds education for current and future generations of Texas school children.
Second, the Fund serves Texas citizens through the Bond Guarantee Program. Through this program, the PSF provides participating Texas school districts and charter districts bond issues with the Fund’s AAA credit rating, resulting in substantial savings to the taxpayers of Texas through reduced borrowing costs. Without this guarantee, public school districts and charter districts would otherwise need to purchase private bond insurance or pay higher interest rates on the bonds they issue.
The TPSF continues to implement its strategic asset allocation plan with the goal of improving the risk/return pro le of the Fund. The strategic asset allocation of the PSF is comprised of private equity, real return, risk parity, absolute return, real estate, and emerging market
debt in addition to traditional allocations to developed and emerging market equities,
and fixed income.
