AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas School Land Board has voted 2-1 to release $300 million from the Available School Fund to the state’s public schools.

Texas voters had previously approved the Land Board’s authority to transfer the money as part of 2011 Constitutional Amendment elections.

State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is chairman of the School Land Board, which oversees the Texas Available School Fund. The progressive advocacy group Progress Texas said that Patterson had led fellow board members in previously blocking the $300 million.

But during a meeting Tuesday, the board voted to release the funds in two installments, $150 million on Feb. 1 and the rest on June 3.

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