Recently, Texhoma ISD passed a bond to build homes in an effort to game the system for more tax dollars.

The tiny community of Texhoma sits on the northernmost border with Oklahoma; 3/4 of the town’s roughly 1,200 residents live on the Oklahoma side of the border. This dearth of Texas residents in the community means that their joint school district receives less funding from the state of Texas.

Texhoma ISD Superintendent Hope Appel sought to help rig the funding system in her favor by passing a $1.05 million bond for the purpose of building houses on the Texas side of the border, to increase the number of Texas students and, therefore, state funding.

Needless to say, with 106 total people voting, the bond passed and Texhoma ISD has entered into a social planning scheme that spends tax dollars as a means to rake in more tax dollars.

In justifying the school district’s planned exploits into real-estate development, Ms. Appel cited similar programs in Borden ISD near Lubbock, that have built housing within the ISD in order to increase enrollment.

School districts should be in the business of educating kids, not real estate speculation. This is an inappropriate use of tax money, and clearly a wasteful use of education resources.

This post was previously posted on www.ProtectTheClassroom.com.

Andrew Kerr is the Executive Director of Empower Texans / Texans for Fiscal Responsibility

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