This brief is part of Education Law Center's "Tracking State Aid Cuts in the Pandemic" series. Against a backdrop of significant underfunding even before the pandemic, the Texas Education Agency announced in June that federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding would be used in place of the final payments of state funding for the 2019-20 year. This action resulted in a total aid cut of $1.3 billion statewide and mirrored New York's pandemic adjustment by cutting state aid and replacing it with one-time federal CARES Act funds. Texas has followed the playbook from the Great Recession, also used by New York, in responding to the pandemic. The state cut aid then backfilled the budget hole with nonrecurring federal emergency funds. These cuts are disproportionately higher in districts segregated by poverty, those most in need from COVID-19. By cutting state aid, Texas has deprived the state's most vulnerable students of the funds necessary to tackle the digital divide and prepare their schools to safely reopen.