Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Once the list is posted it will be interesting to see how long each person lasts. I am a pacifist and don't believe in violence or capital punishment, typical anti gun limp wristed libtard, but it will be interesting when all the chickens come home to roost. The reaction will be comical, especially if it is happening when we are in a hot war with Canada. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

All those kids who needed special ed teachers should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  They are leeches and freeloaders, and we should celebrate Elon taking a chainsaw to them.

MAGA!

Oh, I agree. But you need to think about the big picture. If school districts are cutting funding for special ed teachers, soon they're going to start cutting my cat litter budget. Am I going to have to pay out-of-pocket just so my students who identify as cats can go to the bathroom?!? And between you and me, the rumor going around school is that teachers are going to have to start paying for all the surgical tools and anesthesia we use when we turn girls into boys at school. I average two of those a week and those costs add up quickly!

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 2
  • Haha 2
Posted
On 1/18/2024 at 8:35 AM, Catdaddyhorn said:

I just did a tour of Frank Black Middle school last November for my 5th grader and I must have gotten a complete snow job if what you say is true. The art teacher showed us some of the projects the kids were working on to present at the rodeo and they were extremely impressive. He even mentioned one of the kids in the previous year sold his art work for 10s of thousands of dollars there.  Prior to this year I heard so many great things about Frank Black that it was a no brainer to send my kids there, but after all of the horror stories about uninterested teachers and fighting, I've decided to sit down and fill out the magnet application today. I guess Hogg, Lanier, and/or TH Rogers will move Frank Black down the list. 

 

Did you end up going to Frank Black?

 

On 1/18/2024 at 1:43 PM, Nivek said:

They also gave us a nice showing when we did the tour.  I talked with their Admin staff and SPED program coordinators while my kid was a 5th grader at OFE.   We had an ARD meeting before the boy set foot on campus and my wife was really confident we were good to go.  They put him in 2 AP classes and not the Vanguard program.  For 2 weeks we didn't know this until one of his teachers informed us.  Then its onto a schedule change.  It turns out that something like 2/3rds of the OFE kids go into the Vanguard program which helps to separate them somewhat from other students.    

Yesterday they had testing, we asked our son about it.  They put an 8th grade teacher in charge of it.  Great.  So his accomodations weren't provided and they had no idea.   We have to fucking ask the people whose job it is to do their job for today's testing.   

 

 

 

We're Round Rock ISD. Two youngest are in elementary. I got this email 20 minutes ago. 

image.thumb.png.58d604686e6fb3fe755ac1d435988955.png

 

What are your thoughts on her?  She'd been at Frank Black for 4 and a half years.  I saw your comments on other threads and you had a few criticisms of her. Had things gotten better? Overall impression? 

Posted
2 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

 

Did you end up going to Frank Black?

 

 

We're Round Rock ISD. Two youngest are in elementary. I got this email 20 minutes ago. 

image.thumb.png.58d604686e6fb3fe755ac1d435988955.png

 

What are your thoughts on her?  She'd been at Frank Black for 4 and a half years.  I saw your comments on other threads and you had a few criticisms of her. Had things gotten better? Overall impression? 

I would say there are some slight improvements at FBMS, but some of the issues seem to be systemic and/or rooted in HISD issues.   So while it is hard to discern exactly her role and responsibility was, I tend to think she isn't great, but if the culture is good at the school she might OK there.  

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
12 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

 

Did you end up going to Frank Black?

 

 

We're Round Rock ISD. Two youngest are in elementary. I got this email 20 minutes ago. 

image.thumb.png.58d604686e6fb3fe755ac1d435988955.png

 

What are your thoughts on her?  She'd been at Frank Black for 4 and a half years.  I saw your comments on other threads and you had a few criticisms of her. Had things gotten better? Overall impression? 

We ended up at Lanier.

 

Posted
7 hours ago, Nivek said:

I would say there are some slight improvements at FBMS, but some of the issues seem to be systemic and/or rooted in HISD issues.   So while it is hard to discern exactly her role and responsibility was, I tend to think she isn't great, but if the culture is good at the school she might OK there.  

 

Good to know, thanks.  Our former principal was bad at every aspect of the job.  So bad he got reassigned halfway through the school year.  She's going to be facing a challenging environment - the staff turnover rate this summer was 70%.  Fortunately we have a GREAT PTA and the parents are incredibly supportive which is the only reason the school has survived the last handful of years.  We're a Title 1 school due to a large influx of new apartments being built around our little neighborhood but there are a good number of upper middle class folk here- part of the problem is we're always testing below what our socio/economic numbers indicate we should be at.  Hopefully we'll be able to support her in a way that's helpful.

Posted (edited)
On 3/5/2025 at 7:29 AM, bolverk said:

Texas Senate panel advances bill requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms

Those efforts have come as the Texas GOP increasingly embraces ideologies that argue America’s founding was God-ordained, and its institutions and laws should thus reflect fundamentalist Christians views. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers and leaders have continually elevated once-fringe claims that the wall between church and state is a myth meant to obscure America’s true, Christian roots. The argument has been popularized by figures such as David Barton, a Texas pastor and self-styled “amateur historian” whose work has been frequently debunked by trained historians, many of them also conservative Christians.

Barton and his son, Timothy Barton, were both invited to testify in favor of the bills on Tuesday. Citing old documents and textbooks that mention the Ten Commandments, they argued that Christianity is the basis for American law and morality, and that their inclusion in classrooms would prevent societal ill such as gun violence.

It used to be there was a very clear moral standard that we could point to,” Timothy Barton testified, calling it “ironic” that children can be arrested for breaking the law — and thus, he said, the Ten Commandments — but that they should not be able to read them in schools.

Other bill supporters and lawmakers said that there was a moral and spiritual imperative to introduce children to Christianity. Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, cited a study that found around 25% of children have been to church.

“It’s absolutely horrific, and something we all need to work on to address,” he said.

Other lawmakers similarly invoked declining Christian participation as a reason to support the bills. “There is eternal life,” said Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels. “And if we don’t expose or introduce our children and others to that, then when they die, they’ll have one birth and two deaths.”

Texas is one of 16 states where lawmakers are pursuing bills to require the Ten Commandments in classrooms — pushes that supporters say have been enabled by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In 2019’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, for instance, the court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach, Joe Kennedy, who argued that his employer, a public high school, was violating his religious rights by prohibiting him from leading prayers on the field after games.

Kennedy was among those who testified in support of the Texas bills on Tuesday. He was joined by Matt Krause, a former state House representative and current lawyer at First Liberty Institute, a Texas-based law firm that represented Kennedy and other high-profile plaintiffs in lawsuits that have allowed for more Christianity in public life.

The Kennedy case, Krause testified, was a “huge paradigm shift” that allowed for the Ten Commandments to be in classrooms because of its historical significance to American law and history. Asked about the recent court decision that blocked a similar Louisiana law, Krause said he expected the Texas bill would be upheld if it were taken to the ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, after that, the U.S. Supreme Court.

The bills have been strongly opposed by religious history scholars and some Christian groups, who argue that they are based on mischaracterizations of early American history and amount to a coercion of religion upon students. Opponents also say that the Ten Commandments bill diminishes a sacred text by stripping it of its religious nature, and that introducing more Christianity into schools will exacerbate tensions and isolate Texas’ growing number of non-Christian students.

“Since 2021, this Legislature has used its authority to impose increasingly divisive policies onto school districts, banning culturally relevant curriculum, forcing libraries to purge undesirable books and putting teachers into the crosshairs of overzealous critics,” said Jaime Puente of the nonprofit Every Texan. The bills “are two giant pieces of red meat that will further harm our schools.”

Christian opponents also testified that the bills would erode church-state separations — a cause that has historically been championed by Baptists and other denominations that faced intense religious persecution in early America.

“All Baptists are called to protect the separation of church and state,” said Jody Harrison, an ordained minister and leader of Baptist Women in Ministry. “Is it really justice to promote one type of Christianity over all schoolchildren?”

Harrison’s comments were strongly opposed by Campbell, the senator. “The Baptist doctrine is Christ-centered,” she said. “Its purpose is not to go around trying to defend this or that. It is to be a disciple and a witness for Christ. That includes the Ten Commandments. That’s prayer in schools. It is not a fight for separation between church and state.”

The highlighted name, Timothy Barton, is an idiot. I saw the name and it rang a bell. I checked something online and sure enough it was the one I remembered. When I was done playing football at SAGU (I was not good and wanted to coach basketball) I became a student assistant on the men's basketball team led by a guy named Scott Vaughan. Vaughan would later be fired by SAGU for refusing to attend church services at an Assembly of God church instead of the charismatic Baptist church he attended. He got the last laugh and has won three NBA titles as a scout for the Warriors and was on the podium in 2022 with the team in Boston.

Anyhow this younger Barton tried out for the basketball team. He was not good, AT ALL. I was never shy about my opinions on players. When we voted about which guys would join the roster for that season I gave him a quick no. Everyone on the staff, even myself as a student assistant, got an equal vote on adding players. I had actually voted against a guy that i went to high school with when we took these votes and that was the guy who originally suggested I come to SAGU to play football. Timothy Barton is a terrible basketball player and apparently an even more terrible person. If any of you ever cross paths with him please feel free to ask him about how his aspiring basketball career went at SAGU and then give him two swift kicks in the nuts. If you see his idiot father that poses as a Christian minister and fraudulent historian please kick him square in the face.

Edited by UpperWestside
  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted

Thank dog my youngest graduates high school this May. I can only hope (pray?) that sanity prevails by the time they have children of their own who will enter the school system. My blood boils at the thought of my grandchildren, and any children, having to go schools in a hellscape of Christian Nationalism run amok and being “taught” (indoctrinated) phony morality by hypocritical political tribalists masquerading as righteous educators. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
6 minutes ago, Whitewater Horn said:

Thank dog my youngest graduates high school this May. I can only hope (pray?) that sanity prevails by the time they have children of their own who will enter the school system. My blood boils at the thought of my grandchildren, and any children, having to go schools in a hellscape of Christian Nationalism run amok and being “taught” (indoctrinated) phony morality by hypocritical political tribalists masquerading as righteous educators. 

You just need to worry about whether your grandchildren will volunteer as tribute.

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Rage+1 1
Posted

If you want to force Christianity on children, I'm not sure that putting the 10 Commandments in the classroom is a good idea. Thinking about them, I assume, would lead many to become atheists.

Maybe they should put John 3:16 or something. Oh wait, that's probably considered woke or something. 

Posted

Religion is make believe for grownups.


That being said, if we must have strict rules by which everyone must live, why not simplify the matter and adopt only one, the Golden Rule?

 

  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 2
Posted
3 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

 Vaughan would later be fired by SAGU for refusing to attend church services at an Assembly of God church instead of the charismatic Baptist church he attended. He got the last laugh and has won three NBA titles as a scout for the Warriors and was on the podium in 2022 with the team in Boston.

Anyhow this younger Barton tried out for the basketball team. He was not good, AT ALL....Timothy Barton is a terrible basketball player and apparently an even more terrible person. If any of you ever cross paths with him please feel free to ask him about how his aspiring basketball career went at SAGU and then give him two swift kicks in the nuts. If you see his idiot father that poses as a Christian minister and fraudulent historian please kick him square in the face.

Bolded (my emphasis). Isn't AoG the group that glossed over the whole affair/conncections with some longtime sexual predator/pedophile who was affiliated with their campus outreach ministries: Chi Alpha? The ones that had the aggie dudes that took a minor boy to Houston and had naked spiritual services with him? These folks are the ones that want to put the Ten Commandments in the classroom? Nevermind the fox in the henhouse, that's giving them the farm...

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

I always like to ask bible thumpers why the first commandment mentions other gods. Who are those gods? I thought they said there was only one but bible says there are more.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Posted
8 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I always like to ask bible thumpers why the first commandment mentions other gods. Who are those gods? I thought they said there was only one but bible says there are more.

Jeff the God of Biscuits

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 3
  • Haha 3
Posted (edited)

Oh, and while we're talking about public education and WTF lege, let's check in on higher education. SIAP but here's a Trib article and some links regarding what UT and other universities in Texas are going to be facing. No clue of how serious the lege is on promoting this among their other chicanery, but this is beyond McCarthy and going straight Christian Vo-Tech:

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/13/texas-universities-governing-boards-hiring-curricula-faculty-senates/

Here are a few excerpts but I strongly urge (in a REAL spirit of a strongly worded letter, not the sarcastic kind) reading the entire article. I read the bill itself because I thought, yeah, maybe they're exaggerating, but no, SB 37 is actually worse when you read some of the stuff the article omits for space. It effectively neuters the administration and faculty through this governing board that has more control than regents in some cases, and with-holds money for the yearly budget if they don't think the uni is conforming to their standards, standards which are rather enlightening once one reads the bill. Some of it is actually already in place in a not nefarious way because universities actually do provide oversight over their curricula, hiring, etc but this bill tweaks it to the extent that any faculty or other hires (normally the regents have the final say on those) must pass through this board and they are the ones with the vote. It also demonizes faculty senates and ...well I'll stop there but read the bill text if you have about ten minutes--I know I know, reading a proposed Act is not something you want to do, but if you want your children to inherit this mess, then look away. I'll put the bill link at the bottom.

Quote

Senate Bill 37 would create an Office of Excellence in Higher Education within the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The new office, led by a governor appointee, would be responsible for investigating claims that universities and colleges have broken state laws or their own policies.

Quote

SB 37 would also let governing boards vet and veto universities’ courses and curricula. It would require boards to create committees, made up of local industry partners and tenured faculty at the institution, to ensure courses prepare students for the workforce and “do not endorse specific public policies, ideologies or legislation.”

Quote

Governing boards would also have the power to hire anyone in a leadership role at their universities. Right now, they only appoint chancellors and university presidents. Under SB 37, they would have the final say in hiring vice presidents, provosts and deans. They would also regularly evaluate those employees to ensure they are meeting goals, which include “making efforts to ensure a variety of perspectives are represented among administration and faculty.”

The last is rather humorous because it addresses the notion that all universities are too liberal, progressive and yet they use wording that is rather um, inclusive but you know what they really mean so gah, I just can't. Here comes the march of the middling white religious conservative male, see him strut through the halls of higher ed wielding his superior white male intellect to the masses. Strike that, in the bill, this new board also has oversight over admissions so guess who doesn't get in? Not the masses that make up the demographic of this state, just those of whom we approve.

Here is the link to the bill:

https://trackbill.com/bill/texas-senate-bill-37-relating-to-the-governance-of-public-institutions-of-higher-education-including-review-of-curriculum-and-certain-degree-and-certificate-programs-the-powers-and-duties-of-a-faculty-council-or-senate-training-for-members-of-the-governing-board-and-the-establishment-of-the-office-of-excellence-in-higher-education/2698611/

Read between the lines in an Orwellian fashion and it is, as I stated, enlightening.

I forgot to add, I think it was Brandon Creighton of Conroe that proposed it.

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
Long very long
  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
Religion is make believe for grownups.

That being said, if we must have strict rules by which everyone must live, why not simplify the matter and adopt only one, the Golden Rule?
 

Man…can you IMAGINE if this “Christian Nation” actually exposed our children to the centerpieces of actual Christianity (that is, from the New Testament)?
Things like the Great Commandment, and its plain directive to “love your neighbor as yourself?”
Things like Matthew 25:31-40, plainly telling followers to feed and clothe and shelter the poor?
Things like the Beatitudes - blessed are the poor and such?

Gosh, imagine THAT.

These people have no interest in having the US be a Christian Nation. They want it to be an Authoritarian nation that uses “but we’re Christian” as a shield from accountability or criticism.

In other words…the exact play of the Antichrist as expressly warned about in the scripture they claim to know so well and that they insist is inerrant. If it is indeed inerrant, then they are indeed in league with the Antichrist. How bout them apples?
  • Hook 'Em 4
  • Like 1
Posted

What is this obsession with the 10 commandments. I never realized there were that many Jews in Texas and Oklahoma. Forget the fact that Moses wasn't real which means the 10 commandments isn't real. He was based on a previous Syrian character.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, DaysOff said:

What is this obsession with the 10 commandments. I never realized there were that many Jews in Texas and Oklahoma. Forget the fact that Moses wasn't real which means the 10 commandments isn't real. He was based on a previous Syrian character.

Religious texts are like watching The Magnificent Seven, and denying Seven Samurai exits.

Edited by Nivek
  • Like 3
  • Haha 3
Posted
19 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

What is this obsession with the 10 commandments. I never realized there were that many Jews in Texas and Oklahoma. Forget the fact that Moses wasn't real which means the 10 commandments isn't real. He was based on a previous Syrian character.

It's more just the shibboleth that they can use to test for cultural purity and alignment. If you don't like the 10 commandments, then you're an outsider

  • Like 2
Posted
It's more just the shibboleth that they can use to test for cultural purity and alignment. If you don't like the 10 commandments, then you're an outsider

You have to like them. And worship them.
What you don’t have to do is FOLLOW them.
Because they literally worship as a god a man who violates “thou shall not bear false witness” 1,000 times a day. They’re done with elevating that man to the highest position on earth.
They only care about the commandment of “don’t be gay.” Which, you know…isn’t a commandment.
If it is a commandment, they don’t care. If it isn’t a commandment, they must reshape society itself to enforce that edict.
Makes perfect theological sense.
  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted
30 minutes ago, Captainant said:

It's more just the shibboleth that they can use to test for cultural purity and alignment. If you don't like the 10 commandments, then you're an outsider

More like "shit-boleth", amIrite? 

Posted

So the Keller school district sent out an email yesterday that after 6 months of bullshit they have decided that they are not splitting for now.  I think my favorite paragraph was this one

After months of vetting, we've identified a major obstacle: managing our existing bond debt. The District currently carries over $700 million in debt from previous bonds. Under a reshaping scenario, distributing this debt fairly would require tens of millions in additional funding – resources we simply do not have. This added financial burden would not best serve the Keller ISD students and community.

So before setting all this in motion with the claim it was over financial issues with funding somebody didn't look at the books and realize, "oh this $700M might just be a problem".

whoops GIF

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
Posted
21 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Man…can you IMAGINE if this “Christian Nation” actually exposed our children to the centerpieces of actual Christianity (that is, from the New Testament)?
Things like the Great Commandment, and its plain directive to “love your neighbor as yourself?”
Things like Matthew 25:31-40, plainly telling followers to feed and clothe and shelter the poor?
Things like the Beatitudes - blessed are the poor and such?

Gosh, imagine THAT

Imagine indeed.

image.gif.37ebd174b191e1d0eed6a9068c02a134.gif

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 2
Posted
On 3/12/2025 at 7:53 PM, HornOnTheBayou said:

Oh, I agree. But you need to think about the big picture. If school districts are cutting funding for special ed teachers, soon they're going to start cutting my cat litter budget. Am I going to have to pay out-of-pocket just so my students who identify as cats can go to the bathroom?!? And between you and me, the rumor going around school is that teachers are going to have to start paying for all the surgical tools and anesthesia we use when we turn girls into boys at school. I average two of those a week and those costs add up quickly!

Speaking of which

Quote

Gov. Greg Abbott backs bill banning 'non-human' behavior in schools

The Texas Newsroom | ByBlaise Gainey
Published March 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM CDT

 

  • Rage+1 1
Posted
Quote

The Forbidden Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education, or F.U.R.R.I.E.S. Act, would codify rules against students barking, hissing, licking or meowing in schools. The “non-human behavior” cited in the bill would also ban students from wearing tails, leashes or fur, unless it’s Halloween or another approved holiday where costumes are expected.

I’m imagining troop of DPS officers storming a 4th grade classroom in Uvalde while they sing Old McDonald has a Farm. 
 

“We entered the classroom with a tactical unit and observed a group of youths unlawfully emulating various animals and being encouraged by an adult woman to ‘oink-oink here.’
The tactical unit commander gave the crowd an order to immediately stop. The order was disobeyed, and both the adult and the youths proceeded to ‘oink-oink’ there, at which time we had no choice but to open fire.” 

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 2
Posted
On 3/15/2025 at 7:41 AM, Bama Llama said:

Religion is make believe for grownups.


That being said, if we must have strict rules by which everyone must live, why not simplify the matter and adopt only one, the Golden Rule?

 

What if you're a masochist? 

Posted
22 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

So the Keller school district sent out an email yesterday that after 6 months of bullshit they have decided that they are not splitting for now.  I think my favorite paragraph was this one

After months of vetting, we've identified a major obstacle: managing our existing bond debt. The District currently carries over $700 million in debt from previous bonds. Under a reshaping scenario, distributing this debt fairly would require tens of millions in additional funding – resources we simply do not have. This added financial burden would not best serve the Keller ISD students and community.

So before setting all this in motion with the claim it was over financial issues with funding somebody didn't look at the books and realize, "oh this $700M might just be a problem".

whoops GIF

Why have you and your neighbors approved 700 million + in bonds?

Posted
11 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Why have you and your neighbors approved 700 million + in bonds?

That new football stadium isn’t gonna build itself. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
13 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Wrong.
 

That bond failed years ago. 

I was making a pithy, snarky comment. 
 

if you really care about what the bonds were for it’s all available in the Keller ISD website. 
IMG_2144.thumb.png.9f1dc740bbe0da67b7d952f6c3a9c513.pngIMG_2145.thumb.png.f804b37ab2d7503f7c96695d95362b6c.png
 

 

Keller bond info

Posted
22 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

So the Keller school district sent out an email yesterday that after 6 months of bullshit they have decided that they are not splitting for now.  I think my favorite paragraph was this one

After months of vetting, we've identified a major obstacle: managing our existing bond debt. The District currently carries over $700 million in debt from previous bonds. Under a reshaping scenario, distributing this debt fairly would require tens of millions in additional funding – resources we simply do not have. This added financial burden would not best serve the Keller ISD students and community.

So before setting all this in motion with the claim it was over financial issues with funding somebody didn't look at the books and realize, "oh this $700M might just be a problem".

whoops GIF

Well, I'm gonna assume that the problem was they could 't saddle the poor part with the bulk of the $700M.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Wow 4 elementary schools.   I won’t pretend to know enough to give an educated opinion, but man that’s a big chunk all at once. What was so bad about the buildings?

Keller is actually a pretty old district. First founded in the early 1900s. Some of those schools were pretty old and rancid. 

Posted
20 hours ago, Bookman said:

What if you're a masochist? 

Hey! Say that like you’re proud!

Who the fuck are you talking to?

Wait.  I was thinking schizophrenic. Never mind.

Posted
Fuck it - just let Oklahoma literally burn.
That's just Oklahoma making sure they stay first in line for federal funds to rebuild after the next tornado rips through that shit hole state.
Posted
On 3/16/2025 at 9:11 AM, Pato del Muerto said:

Wow 4 elementary schools.   I won’t pretend to know enough to give an educated opinion, but man that’s a big chunk all at once. What was so bad about the buildings?

The four elementary schools being replaced were built in 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1987.  Not young but not old.  Austin's Bowie HS was built in 1987 and the current Austin High was built in 1975, about the same time span.

Austin ISD, by comparison, is just now replacing Travis High School, which was built in 1952, leaving rodent-rich McCallum, also class of '52, as the oldest high school building in town.

As part of that 2019 bond, Keller ISD built four indoor air-conditioned football practice facilities, one at each high school, for a cost of $48 million.  By today's standards that is actually a pretty good price for that kind of building.

I've been paying attention to the Austin ISD bonds since they started with the big bonds in 2017.  Old elementary schools get completely replaced.  At the middle and especially at the high school level, there is a lot of focus on improving athletic facilities and not as much focus on academic areas.  This is not exclusive to Austin ISD, there is an athletics arms war going on all around the state.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Keller also (per the Googles) voted to no longer pay into Recapture system. I wish AISD would do the same as it is ridiculous that Austin property tax bills keep going up due to having to make up recapture shortfalls via bonds etc (Crazy thing is that the bonds I believe have a recapture % on them as well)

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
9 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

Keller also (per the Googles) voted to no longer pay into Recapture system. I wish AISD would do the same as it is ridiculous that Austin property tax bills keep going up due to having to make up recapture shortfalls via bonds etc (Crazy thing is that the bonds I believe have a recapture % on them as well)

Bonds do not have a recapture component, unless there is some weird effect I've not heard about.  Districts plan for bond packages, decide what they want to fund and how much they can afford to borrow, and if the voters approve then they start borrowing and building.  The money stays in the district.

There are two components of school property taxes:

* Maintenance and Operation (M&O) -- this is the money that pays people and it is subject to recapture
* Interest and Sinking (I&S) -- this is the money collected to pay off bonds issued by the district and it is not subject to recapture.

I think the I&S portion is limited to 50 cents of property tax.  Austin ISD is at 12.3 cents.  Keller is at 33 cents.

The M&O portion consists of a "regular" tax portion, plus optional golden pennies, plus optional copper pennies.  The regular portion and the copper pennies are subject to recapture.  The golden pennies are not.  The maximum number of golden and copper pennies is set by the state.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
7 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

Bonds do not have a recapture component, unless there is some weird effect I've not heard about.  Districts plan for bond packages, decide what they want to fund and how much they can afford to borrow, and if the voters approve then they start borrowing and building.  The money stays in the district.

There are two components of school property taxes:

* Maintenance and Operation (M&O) -- this is the money that pays people and it is subject to recapture
* Interest and Sinking (I&S) -- this is the money collected to pay off bonds issued by the district and it is not subject to recapture.

I think the I&S portion is limited to 50 cents of property tax.  Austin ISD is at 12.3 cents.  Keller is at 33 cents.

The M&O portion consists of a "regular" tax portion, plus optional golden pennies, plus optional copper pennies.  The regular portion and the copper pennies are subject to recapture.  The golden pennies are not.  The maximum number of golden and copper pennies is set by the state.

Thanks for clarifying. I knew something was subject to recapture beyond just property tax just wasn’t sure if bonds or props. 
 

Posted

BRENNAN: Kentucky receives $2b in federal education funding. Do you have a guarantee that the federal govt will still provide it? That seems important to your state

RAND PAUL: What I'd rather is a guarantee my kids can read and write and do math ... Dollars are not proportional to education success

 

John Candy Reaction GIF

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
  • Rage+1 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1


×
×
  • Create New...