I’ve always hated having “special” school district elections, especially for bond issues. Over the past year, we’ve had quite a few elections here in Dallas, TX. We’ve had a Mayoral election, Mayoral run off, then we had the primary elections, and the run offs.
Now, Dallas Independent School District wants a billion dollars. Conveniently, they’ve decided to have a special election just to make sure that no one except die hard people get to vote.
I think if these type of bond issues were voted on by a larger number of voters, they’d never pass. That’s why the proponents want to have them as a special election and many of the polling places are in schools.
I will vote and will vote NO on this nightmare of a bond issue.
Remember that school districts in Texas are independent political entities. They can’t have their elections piggy-backed onto municipal elections because they don’t overlap exactly: parts of Dallas are in Richardson ISD, for example, and parts of Richardson are part of Dallas ISD (there are probably other areas of overlap, those are just the ones I know about).
As far as having elections in schools–where else would you suggest they put polling places? Churches? Businesses? There aren’t enough rec centers/community centers/libraries.
As far as the bond itself, I work for DISD but pay taxes in Richardson, so yes, I’m a bit biased. But I will tell you that the schools are in terrible, terrible shape.
I’ll take your word for it, it’s a classic problem: government entity handles money badly but does simultaneously genuinely need more money now. It is a difficult problem because in some sense kids are being held hostage when the voters attempt to hold the schools accountable.
The Oregon schools have faced a similar problem. When I was a voter in that situation, I decided to vote to fund the schools, but make efforts to replace the school administration. The school board is independently accountable, after all.
Dallas ISD has deep, systemic problems–the P-card scandal was part of that. IME, most of those problems are rooted in people that have been in place for decades and have come to think of blatant abuses as perks, and forgotten they are even illegal or unethical.
On the other hand, I have a great deal of respect for Hinojosa. In my interactions with him, I have been impressed by his strong moral code, and he is certainly an intelligent and creative thinker. I have high hopes that he looks at his job as a long term commitment and not as a stepping-stone to somewhere else, and given time I think he is capable of meaningful reform–it’s already started, he cut out a lot of positions downtown of people that couldn’t justify their jobs, and a lot of other people are now working harder to make sure their job stays justified. I have seen this, personally.
The last bond issue did a lot of good. I now have reliable electrical outlets and internet jacks in my room. There are several lovely new schools, and lots of new wings.
No one is more cynical about the District than those of us that work here. But I really do think it’s in an upswing right this minute. I hope it lasts.
A lot of people balk at voting “no” on anything that’s supposedly going to fund education, so it’s easy for a district to get money and misuse it. If you care at all about education, however, you should also pay attention to who gets elected to the board, and how they act subsequently.
A billion dollars - whoa. Here I am still irritated at the local schools dinging us for $1.8 million a few years back so they could lay down astro turf at each high school football field.
I do, however, agree with the idea that “special elections” for bond issues are intended to limit the amount of advertising to those that support an issue like that while keeping it rather hushed among those that oppose it.
Actually, that tactic almost never works. As many districts here in Ohio have learned (to their sadness), scheduling levies for the off-peak election dates often results in all the naysayers turning out, and the people in favor just assuming everything will be alright.
It could be worse: you could be a state that has Ohio’s method of funding schools: every few years (4 or 5 usually), the main funding method has to be re-voted upon. :eek:
