School bonds failed across Texas. What happens now?

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As leaders of the East Central Independent School District regroup from the failure of several big revenue-generating proposals on the Nov. 5 ballot, they now join a long list of Texas districts that face fewer and fewer options to support rapidly growing student growth.

Across Texas, voters rejected 20 of 35 school district bond propositions put forward by 19 school districts this November — underscoring a broad skepticism about public school funding and echoing the increasing influence of state-level politics on local education decisions.

It’s a befuddling problem to East Central ISD leaders, who face explosive enrollment growth, infrastructure needs and other funding woes — exacerbated in part by the Texas Legislature’s withholding of additional resources last year.

The district’s enrollment, now at 11,501 students, is projected to grow to 13,215 by next year and nearly double to 25,617 within a decade.

But in Texas, schools are limited in the amount of money they can collect on a local basis, with excess funds from high property values or property growth being “recaptured” by the state. If districts need more money, they have to seek voter approval to get it.

East Central leaders warned before the Nov. 5 election if voters didn’t approve extra funds, they wouldn’t be able to compete with other districts in terms of teacher salaries, and that facility repairs would continue to become more expensive.

Despite that urgency, voters rejected all three bond propositions and a proposed five-cent property tax rate increase, causing the district’s projected $2.4 million budget shortfall to balloon to roughly $9 million in the coming years, according to the district’s administration.

“We didn’t get the result we hoped for, but we look forward to reengaging with our Facilities Committee and gathering additional feedback from the broader community,” East Central ISD Superintendent Roland Toscano said in the aftermath of the defeat.

In the meantime, the district’s growth has created urgent demands for new schools and infrastructure repairs, compounded by a teacher shortage and inflationary pressures, according to district officials.

With construction costs projected to rise by 10-15% annually, the district risks further financial strain if critical projects are delayed.

East Central’s funding quagmire — which is playing out across the state in growing districts — highlights mounting tensions over public school funding, local control and Texas’ evolving political landscape.

So what comes next? And what could this mean for education in a state with more than 5.5 million public school students?

A tougher landscape

East Central leaders entered the November election clear-eyed about the challenge of getting voters on board with revenue increases.

A bond proposal focused on school buildings had already failed in 2021, while a different proposal was approved the following year.

Leading up to this election, Brandon Oliver, a district spokesperson, engaged with voters on Facebook leading up to the election, sharing information about the expanding district enrollment and the limited funding allotted to the district by the state, regardless of how much property growth occurred in the region.

But unlike in 2022, voters weren’t convinced.

Public comments on East Central ISD’s social media accounts shared concerns about the increased taxes and subpar academic outcomes as reasons they were skeptical of the bond requests.

“Our kids deserve better, but will ECISD provide that?” one user identified as Cassandra Hernandez wrote in response to the election results. “I remember when I was going there. It was one of the top schools. Now it’s considered garbage, and I feel bad that my kids have to go there. I don’t think any amount of money can make ECISD better.”

In response, East Central ISD has pledged to refine its proposals and engage more deeply with the community to build consensus on future initiatives.

Toscano emphasized that addressing overcrowding, safety concerns and teacher retention requires urgent action. But as state politics increasingly shape the financial realities of local districts, the path forward remains fraught.

Closing off other revenue streams

The November election came as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been on a mission to allow parents of private school students to take their taxpayer dollars away from public schools and use it to subsidize their tuition, books or other education expenses.

Last session, that effort included withholding funding that lawmakers had approved for public schools as a means to bring them on board with his school voucher plan.

The effort failed, and public schools entered the school year without money for teacher raises, mandatory school safety initiatives and other expenses. A similar deal is on the table when state lawmakers return to work in January.

At the same time, buoyed by a 2023 legislative session that delivered $18 billion in property tax cuts, Abbott has signaled his intention to further curtail local taxing authorities.

Speaking at a campaign event in San Antonio just days before the Nov. 5 election, Abbott said he was already working to line up support for such a plan, though he presented few details, and his office did not respond to a request for more information.

“School districts, that’s where your property tax bill largely comes from,” Abbott said. “… Walking into this next session we’re going to have at least a $20 billion budget surplus. I want to work with these legislators … and make sure we pass another huge property tax cut.”

“In addition to passing that property tax cut, we’re going to do this year what we did not do last year,” he continued. “We’ve got to close the loophole that allows these taxing entities to be able to go back behind our back and raise those property taxes.”

For school districts like East Central, this rhetoric — and the legislative changes it may bring — poses a possible threat to their ability to fund critical projects through bonds or tax rate increases.

They’re also cut out of the benefits of local economic development efforts, because the legislature caps what they can collect from the growth in property value.

At a recent meeting of the Bexar County Commissioners Court, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai lamented the fact that a county-incentivized housing development would be a boon to the hospital district and the river authority — but less so to the schools that could use that money.

“Although we increase the value [of the property]… more revenue does not automatically go dollar-for-dollar for the school district,” Sakai said. “That’s problematic because school districts don’t get the benefit that the other taxing entities get.”

Public education under siege?

Abbott, for his part, has insisted that public schools will get their funding next session.

But skeptics of his plan see these developments as part of a broader campaign to undermine Texas public schools, which have increasingly found themselves in crosshairs of the state’s culture wars.

Public school advocates, including a contingent of rural Republicans, have argued for years that allowing taxpayer money to fund private school education could siphon critical funding from public schools, limiting districts’ ability to serve growing student populations.

State House Rep. Steve Allison, R-Alamo Heights, who lost his seat for voting against Abbott’s private school voucher plan, said the governor’s promises are clouded by special interests funding the school choice movement who don’t want to see public schools succeed.

“You can’t escape the fact that some of the extreme interests in the voucher program, their ultimate goal is to get rid of the public education system,” he said while campaigning for the Democrat running to fill his seat, who ultimately lost to a supporter of school vouchers.

At a different campaign event in San Antonio this month, Democrat Wendy Davis, who represented Fort Worth in the Texas Senate and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2014, described her personal evolution on the matter like this:

“When I first started … I believed that we were having honest disagreements with Republicans about the way that [school funding cuts] should go,” said Davis, who served on the Senate’s Education Committee.

“Someone said to me, ‘You know, they are trying to dismantle public education,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so cynical,’” said Davis, who served on the Senate’s Education Committee. “But I’m telling you, I believe it. I believe it in my core right now.”

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