4 ms·

I live in Texas (DFW). I pay close to 10k a year to the school district. They spent over 2 million dollars on my sons high school this summer to replace the gra

I live in Texas (DFW). I pay close to 10k a year to the school district. They spent over 2 million dollars on my sons high school this summer to replace the grass on the football field with artificial turf. They also destroyed what looked like a brand new baseball field to replace it with a brand new baseball field. Across the street at the middle school they also replaced the grass with artificial turf for the grade 6-8 kids. The football field is of the same caliber as the Dallas Cowboys use. My son told me a couple of days ago that the PC's in his computer lab are complete garbage and barely work (I bought him an Mac Airbook for his birthday) so he uses his own laptop. He says the lab equipment(physics, Chemistry, Biology) is also marginal. The ignorant fools in my district just passed a Bond Election for like 300 million dollars for God only knows what. My taxes went up by about $500 bucks to the school district. It now almost costs the same amount to send one kid to High School as it does to send the other kid to UoT (Dallas). Where does it end? I don't know.

throwawayjava 9y ago
I address some of your specific concerns below, but here's a tip: be loud and be involved. At a lot of districts, especially in Texas, sports facilities receive a ton of resources because the sports-obsessed parents are loud and make it clear that they vote. But this requires civic-mindedness. You have to care a decade before your kid is in school, and continue caring a decade after, if anything's going to change. That's why sports get so many resources at some districts -- the sports -obsessed parents stay involved long before and long after their kids are out of school. I'm not sure what to say except "welcome to democracy". (e: you might expect things would be better if education were privatized, but in reality the private schools seem even more obsessed with sports, and have their own high school version of the university amenities wars. So I'm skeptical that market mechanisms wouldn't end up behaving similarly to democratic mechanisms.) > They spent over 2 million dollars on my sons high school this summer to replace the grass on the football field with artificial turf. Artificial turf can be cheaper in the long run for primary use athletic fields, which get a lot of abuse and therefore require a lot of ongoing maintenance. You're trading a ~30+ year amortized cost for a single fixed cost, so the number can get pretty high while still working out in the black. $2 million is high for a single field, though. Did it include e.g. upgrades to the stadium seating? And I don't see why a middle school would need turf. I tend to think the sports component of American high schools is stupid. But if it's going to exist, turf can be a cost-efficient choice. WRT the other stuff, again, see "get involved" and "be loud". > The ignorant fools in my district just passed a Bond Election for like 300 million dollars for God only knows what This is generally public information. 300 million sounds like district-wide significant building upgrades. These things usually mix "invisible but important" stuff (routers, HVAC upgrades, etc.) with "visible, high impact" stuff. I'd be surprised if those science and computer labs aren't included? > It now almost costs the same amount to send one kid to High School as it does to send the other kid to UoT (Dallas). Frankly, if you step back for a second, you'd expect K12 education to be more expensive than college. In one case you're lecturing to huge rooms of adults, in the other you're teaching small classes. But that's a whole different conversation...
positr0n 9y ago
I live in the same area and agree with your complaints. You may have already accounted for this in your $10k figure, but keep in mind that because property taxes are pretty much the only funding for school districts in Texas a percentage of rich school district's budgets are recaptured for redistribution among poor school districts. I paid $3300 for the school district portion of my property taxes this year, and about $800 goes to the state (which I don't have a problem with for the record).

throwawayjava 9y ago

I address some of your specific concerns below, but here's a tip: be loud and be involved. At a lot of districts, especially in Texas, sports facilities receive a ton of resources because the sports-obsessed parents are loud and make it clear that they vote. But this requires civic-mindedness. You have to care a decade before your kid is in school, and continue caring a decade after, if anything's going to change. That's why sports get so many resources at some districts -- the sports -obsessed parents stay involved long before and long after their kids are out of school. I'm not sure what to say except "welcome to democracy". (e: you might expect things would be better if education were privatized, but in reality the private schools seem even more obsessed with sports, and have their own high school version of the university amenities wars. So I'm skeptical that market mechanisms wouldn't end up behaving similarly to democratic mechanisms.) > They spent over 2 million dollars on my sons high school this summer to replace the grass on the football field with artificial turf. Artificial turf can be cheaper in the long run for primary use athletic fields, which get a lot of abuse and therefore require a lot of ongoing maintenance. You're trading a ~30+ year amortized cost for a single fixed cost, so the number can get pretty high while still working out in the black. $2 million is high for a single field, though. Did it include e.g. upgrades to the stadium seating? And I don't see why a middle school would need turf. I tend to think the sports component of American high schools is stupid. But if it's going to exist, turf can be a cost-efficient choice. WRT the other stuff, again, see "get involved" and "be loud". > The ignorant fools in my district just passed a Bond Election for like 300 million dollars for God only knows what This is generally public information. 300 million sounds like district-wide significant building upgrades. These things usually mix "invisible but important" stuff (routers, HVAC upgrades, etc.) with "visible, high impact" stuff. I'd be surprised if those science and computer labs aren't included? > It now almost costs the same amount to send one kid to High School as it does to send the other kid to UoT (Dallas). Frankly, if you step back for a second, you'd expect K12 education to be more expensive than college. In one case you're lecturing to huge rooms of adults, in the other you're teaching small classes. But that's a whole different conversation...

positr0n 9y ago

I live in the same area and agree with your complaints. You may have already accounted for this in your $10k figure, but keep in mind that because property taxes are pretty much the only funding for school districts in Texas a percentage of rich school district's budgets are recaptured for redistribution among poor school districts. I paid $3300 for the school district portion of my property taxes this year, and about $800 goes to the state (which I don't have a problem with for the record).