Apparently times aren’t so tough when public schools are buying new flat-screen TVs to hang in the locker rooms and weight rooms of a newly remodeled football stadium. Just ask Glen Rose ISD (which is, of course, suing the state for more “education” money).
The Somerville County Salon reports that Glen Rose ISD recently spent $12,885 on 11 flat-screen TVs for use in their multi-million-dollar stadium project.
The Salon helpfully broke it down like this:
They bought six locker room TV’s @ $960 each totaling $5,760.
They bought two hall of honor TV’s @ $1,425 each totaling $2,850.
They bought three weight room TV’s @ $1,425 each totaling $4,275.

Glen Rose Tigers
And, of course, Glen Rose ISD is one of those school districts suing the state to pump more money into the system, saying there isn’t enough cash going to the classroom. Glen Rose ISD expends $16,299 per pupil (2010 numbers reported to the TEA), up 28 percent from 2000, when the school district was spending $12,708 per pupil. Go, Tigers!
At least administrators in Glen Rose ISD have had the good graces to buy their stadium’s TVs with their own local tax money.
(You’ll recall that businesses in Brownwood refused to pony up the cash for a new jumbo-sized scoreboard. Afterwards, the Brownwood ISD superintendent told his school board he was hoping to use any additional state dollars to fund the purchase. So much for funding education.)
But that’s probably little consolation for the taxpayers in Glen Rose stuck with the bill.
One is also left to wonder if Glen Rose ISD’s new basketball arena has similarly strategic TVs in the purchasing pipeline…