A retiring member of the Texas Senate wants the governor to call a lame-duck session of the Legislature for the purpose of imposing a statewide property tax. Frankly, one simply cannot pack more wrong-thinking into a single proposal. Sen. Steve OgdenState Sen. Steve...
Even at a time when a record number of school districts are challenging Texas’ school finance system, school districts are still finding ways to waste taxpayer money. New Braunfels ISD’s push to spend tax dollars on new iPads for students is just the latest example....
Who needs an education when you can have a professional soccer field? That seems to the mentality of the San Antonio ISD board of trustees, given they just voted to spend $3 million more to build a professional-size field at Alamo Stadium despite participating in a...
Texas public schools have doubled per-pupil spending over the last decade, but the academic results should leave teachers, parents, taxpayers and lawmakers wondering where the money has gone. And one school administrator doesn’t think college readiness should be a...
What’s going on when a school district doubles per-pupil spending, yet their SAT scores fall from a 1047 to a 938? Is it a shortage of cash, or a lack of reform-minded leadership? The Decatur ISD school board present, Alan White, recently sent me a note saying Empower...
There is no doubt Allen has experienced rampant population growth over the past few decades, so the school district is building a new bus barn. Rather than renovate the existing facility, bureaucrats naturally want to instead build a brand new $40 million structure....
For more than thirty years, official education policy has been “more money means better education.” And taxpayers have dutifully increased spending by a whopping percentage; per pupil spending on public education has doubled just over the last decade. Of course, they...
Since the Harris County Department of Education hasn’t been in charge of managing public schools for over 90 years, it’s had to find another way to spend its taxpayer funds: investing in for-profit businesses. Apparently, venture capitalism is one of the many...
How much did you spend on food and drinks in a four-month span? The Harris County Department of Education spent about $72,000 in taxpayer funded “Restaurant/Refreshment” purchases from August to December last year, a microcosm of waste so bad that many would consider...
The Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) represents exactly the kind of obsolete and financially inefficient government entity that has plagued our public education system for years. It’s one of only two departments of its kind left in Texas, providing only...