Textbooks should be a subscription and should be digital, but in a Kindle sort of format not iPad. I'm against screens but textbooks, especially the sciences, are obsolete before they are even printed. With a subscription can update annually without the cost of reprinting.

reineraggie09 said:

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Textbooks should be a subscription and should be digital, but in a Kindle sort of format not iPad. I'm against screens but textbooks, especially the sciences, are obsolete before they are even printed. With a subscription can update annually without the cost of reprinting.

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yeah maybe neurosciences or quantum physics.

For just about 99% of all public school textbooks, we should be using volumes from 30 years ago before we stopped teaching about communism and real history.

Buck Turgidson said:

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Anybody know what share of property taxes in Texas are contributed by homesteads versus other property? There's a lot of commercial real estate out there, but I have never seen a breakdown.

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https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/docs/96-1728-22-23.pdf

Closest thing I've ever found on the subject. It doesn't breakdown by homestead vs non-homestead single-family properties but you can see the delta between single-family total taxable value and commercial real estate total taxable value.

So about 45% of the tax base is single family. My first thought was whether we could simply eliminate property taxes on homestead-exempt homes, but that seems unlikely. I bet we could really hike the homestead exemption higher though. It would be great if the first $350K or so was exempt.

So, just to throw an anecdotal example of where ISD property taxes are going....

Kerrville ISD has about 4400 students. Enrollment in the district is down 12% the past decade. One of the 4 elementary schools received an "F" from the state last year.

The Superintendent has a base salary of $355,000 plus perks.

The published deficit in the ISD was recently updated to a $2.5 million deficit for this fiscal year.

A bit mind boggling to me (but that's just me).

KerrAg76 said:

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When I drive by new built school buildings and local government offices and they look better than local businesses, I get grumpy and complain about local taxes….crazy wasteful of tax dollars

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This 10000%!!! Keep seeing the schools build new buildings, new stadiums, new gymnasiums, even big football practice buildings. WTF. We practiced out in the sun or rain on grass. The county wants to remodel the court house again. And the gravel road in front of our house hasn't been graded in a year. I guess their new maintenance model is to wait till it's completely crap, then haul some gravel on it and ignore it till it's crap again. As far as property taxes, it doesn't matter what they do in Austin, the appraisal district will just raise the valuation, so your taxes never really go down.

Texas12&0 said:

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I'm over 65. Where do I sign up to pay zero property tax?

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Yeah, me too. I'm tired of writing those 12,000 dollar checks

The school district where I work is pimping up a local ballot initiative to add a one mill tax specifically for teacher salary, school, safety, and mental health. It will be on about the same time as the measure to increase the Homestead exemption on everything other than education taxes.

The county next to us pays teachers quite a bit more, but they also have the nations largest retirement community in their county so they have a whole bunch of property taxes being paid by people who are not contributing to the overall school population. But that's what our district is using as the argument about why so many of our teachers leave and go next-door.

There was a union meeting earlier this week, and I was told that the union was freaking out about the uncertainty of getting this ballot measure passed. I know I'm sure as hell not going to vote for it because I know how my district handles their finances and teacher salary is gonna be the last thing this is gonna go to. Instead, it's all gonna go to security theater and these dumbass mental health programs that we have to teach in our classes.

It's absolutely idiotic that they would think they could politically add a property tax at the same time the majority of Floridians are supporting severely curtailing property taxes.

Hey Nav said:

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So, just to throw an anecdotal example of where ISD property taxes are going....

Kerrville ISD has about 4400 students. Enrollment in the district is down 12% the past decade. One of the 4 elementary schools received an "F" from the state last year.

The Superintendent has a base salary of $355,000 plus perks.

The published deficit in the ISD was recently updated to a $2.5 million deficit for this fiscal year.

A bit mind boggling to me (but that's just me).

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Sounds like he needs a raise and y'all need to build a new football complex.

and people are *****ing about our superintendent making that much with.... 8 times as many students and exemplary grades/ratings.


This is a bad example but people forget the superintendent is basically the CEO of a very large company with a very large budget. Many districts spend hundreds of millions with thousands of employees.

Many people think the person in charge of that should be making about $80k and have their phone tapped with access provided to every "tax paying citizen".

ChoppinDs40 said:

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and people are *****ing about our superintendent making that much with.... 8 times as many students and exemplary grades/ratings.


This is a bad example but people forget the superintendent is basically the CEO of a very large company with a very large budget. Many districts spend hundreds of millions with thousands of employees.

Many people think the person in charge of that should be making about $80k and have their phone tapped with access provided to every "tax paying citizen".

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Yeah, I generally don't have a problem with a Superintendent making CEO money. I can't imagine the daily horse**** they have to put up with in that job. You would have to pay me a $1m a year to do it.

Having said that, from the data I've seen it looks like administrative bloat is off the charts in many school districts. Multiple layers of Superintendents making big money that has only grown over the decades while student performance has never really improved since the DoE took over.

jagsdad said:

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Texas12&0 said:

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I'm over 65. Where do I sign up to pay zero property tax?

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Yeah, me too. I'm tired of writing those 12,000 dollar checks

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Sell your home and buy a $140,000 house. No school taxes.

The main issue is all of the requirements and special programs that admin has to deal with now.

Damn near every kid can now get an individual education plan that requires meetings, special attention, accommodations, blah blah.

And if you don't follow it, of course there are lawyers that will just tear the district apart and drag it all the way up the ladder.

Education has become very litigious. We are a long ways away from getting your ass whipped by a teacher in the hallway and no one asking questions.

In a lot of ways, the taxpayers only have to thank themselves and vocal minority for increasing regulatory requirements and making educators lives a living hell. It's also a big reason many educators are leaving the field. Too much BS to deal with.