Under the current standards of review, 1 in 5 school districts in Texas received a D or F in their yearly evaluations. 42 percent of all Texas students are not on grade level in math, reading, science, or social studies. While all of this is happening, superintendents are earning obscene salaries and school districts are borrowing billions of dollars for extravagant sports facilities.
As a result, you, the Texas taxpayer, are subsidizing a failing system. School Districts are political subdivisions responsible for the highest percentage of your property tax bill, yet time and time again they come to taxpayers for more money.
So how does this keep happening? School districts have been employing lobbyists at the taxpayer expense to exploit the sympathies of Texans. Their messaging that the next bond will help your child read or that the next property tax increase will raise teacher pay is often disingenuous. Lobbyists hired by school districts often oppose legislation that would lower school district tax rates or push to have elections to approve higher taxes on days where turnout is so low that just a few votes can influence the outcome to line their own pockets.
Debt generated by just the top ten ISDs in Texas totals more than $36.2 billion, which translates to roughly $36,000 in debt per student. To put it into perspective the debt for each student is almost an entire four-year college tuition.
Even as they actively extort taxes by promising to help teachers and children, associations have used their resources to fight against parents. In 2021, the National School Boards Association, of which the Texas Association of School Boards was a member at the time, sent a letter to then President Biden encouraging investigations against parents who voiced their concerns about the literal pornography being taught to their children. The letter invoked the Patriot Act and essentially called for parents who dared to speak up to be labeled as domestic terrorists.
The use of lobbyists in general is not necessarily improper, however it is when entities whose operation is dependent on taxpayer money decide to take sides on a legislative issue. Lobbying is a way for citizens to exercise their right to petition their government for the redress of grievances. It is an inherently political act to which every American is entitled, including teachers, staff, and administrators, so long as they are acting in their private capacity. School Districts, as political subdivisions, have no such right—and thus, their use of taxpayer funded lobbying must be eliminated!