Nearly 60 percent of voters in the Duncanville school district voted against a massive property tax hike on Tuesday, while some 73 percent voted against a similar measure in Cedar Hill. The multi-million-dollar tax hikes were defeated by a $30 grassroots campaign. And a little commonsense.
More than half of the employees of Duncanville’s ISD are non-teachers, and spending over the last decade has risen 51 percent. Meanwhile, student enrollment went up only 15 percent, while SAT scores dropped 2 percent.
The same scene played out in Cedar Hill, only worse, where spending has soared 67 percent over the last decade, while SAT scores have dropped 12 percent. Student enrollment has risen 25 percent, while the number of non-teachers has grown 34 percent!
Among those leading the charge against both efforts was Joey Dauben, who reports he spent $30 on yard signs in the campaign to defeat the measure in Cedar Hill. It just goes to show that taxpayer victories oftentimes involves just showing up.
Both school districts were seeking large tax hikes to, of course, further their bloated budgets. Of course, the Dallas Morning News reported dutifully that "the additional money would fund teacher raises and pay unpredictable fuel and utility costs."
As is usually the case, both districts have enough money to pay their bloated ranks of non-teachers — it’s just paying those pesky teachers that requires a tax hike.
