I have no idea where they’re going to get the votes for this thing.
Both the Harris County Democratic and Republican Party executive committees have unanimously voted in favor of resolutions opposing the largest school bond in state history, which is facing more public pushback than HISD’s previous bonds due largely to community opposition to the state takeover and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles.
The Harris County Democratic Party county executive committee adopted a resolution against the bond during its Sunday meeting, where it cited “the harmful impacts on HISD schoolchildren,” “ethical, governance and financial risks” and “lack of transparency and accountability to taxpayers” associated with Miles’ leadership of the district.
“While the Harris County Democratic Party supports public education and acknowledges the need for full funding, including bonds, it opposes the HISD $4.4 billion bonds, Proposition A and B, due to Superintendent Mike Miles’ fiscal mismanagement, inadequate oversight and the detrimental impact on students and public education since the takeover,” the resolution said.
Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of Community Voices for Public Education, said she supports funding for public education, but she wrote and presented the resolution at the committee’s meeting because she believes Miles and the Texas Education Agency’s intervention into the district is harming students, parents and teachers.
“I presume that the Harris County Republican Party has different reasons to oppose the bond than the Harris County Democratic Party, but for different reasons, people on both sides of the aisle found an abundance of evidence that says, ‘Not today. We need a better bond, and we can vote for a better bond sometime in the future,’” said Kravetz, a Democratic precinct chair.
[…]
Both parties’ official opposition to the bond comes as leaders of the Houston NAACP, the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, the League of United Latin American Citizens Council 60, and the district’s largest teachers union have already said they plan to vote against the bond due, in part, to their lack of trust in Miles and concerns over financial accountability.
The measure has, however, seen support from multiple HISD principals, elected trustees and a coalition of Houston organizations, including Good Reason Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership and Houstonians for Great Public Schools, who say the bond is necessary to fix urgent infrastructure needs in the district’s 274 schools.
You can listen to my interviews with Plácido Gómez and Dani Hernandez for the HISD bond, and the aforementioned Ruth Kravetz of CVPE against the HISD bond. Not everone pays attention to what the political parties do, and of those who do not everyone will follow them. As I’ve said, I’m an unenthusiastic supporter of the bond (I am a precinct chair and was at Sunday’s meeting; I did not vote on the resolution – it was a voice vote so I just kept my mouth shut). Anecdotally at least, I’m very much in the minority. If and when there’s a more visible campaign for the bond – there’s a colorful if perhaps limited campaign against it already going on – we’ll see if they have an effect. For now, I just don’t see how this thing passes. Campos, also a bond supporter, has more.
“The measure has…seen support from multiple HISD principals [and] elected trustees”
those people whose jobs are hostage to Mike Miles.
The resolution adopted by the Republican Party cited these reasons:
-student enrollment has dropped by 12 percent in the past 7 years in HISD
-HISD has a record of poor fiscal management and lavish administrative spending
-taxpayers are already facing headwinds from local tax increases, poor economy, inflation
-including interest these bonds would cost $8.8 billion to pay back
-bonds are a tax increase and add to the debt burden of local government
A number of GOP business types are supporting the bonds, including elected HISD Board member Bridget Wade, and Jennifer Naedler sent out a fundraiser mailer this week for an upcoming event which included some regular GOP donor types.