Texas, Our Texas

More than 1 in 6 teenagers who give birth in Texas already have at least one child, the highest in the nation.

Texas doesn’t require sex ed and parents have to sign off on birth control…even if you’ve already had a child.

My latest for @TexasTribune:https://t.co/Z64g0N5lDF

— Eleanor Klibanoff (@eklib) February 21, 2022

Speaking of public education:

A May election will let Texans decide whether the state will increase school funding to make up for revenues lost from a decrease in property taxes. https://t.co/NxBLboZvcm

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) February 21, 2022

This one takes a little explanation. Texas public schools are organized into independent school districts, distinct governmental entities with taxation power.  Texas has no state property tax (it's outlawed in our constitution), but local governments (county, city, schools, others) can raise taxes from real property values.  That's not as pure as it seems, since now the Lege has to parcel out the money to make it equitable between very rich school districts (high property values) and very poor school districts.

The idea on the ballot in May is to lower the ceiling of those property taxes, but make up for it with funding from the Lege.  Which will then decide, in a moment of budget balancing, that schools don't need that much money after all.  Kinda like  the universities don't need tenured faculty, right Lite Guv Patrick?

And when Patrick said Friday that voters are with him on teaching, he was dreaming, once again, that he was in the majority: In a February 2022 University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll, most voters were on the other side. “This has overwhelming support of all people in the state — all people in the state — not just one party,” he said.

That February poll found 37% of voters support “limiting the use of teaching materials that emphasize racism in the history of the U.S. by Texas public school teachers,” 50% oppose limits and 14% had no opinion. He doesn’t even have a majority in his own GOP, where 42% of voters want limits and 47% don’t.

Except the majority of Texans think they do; just as a majority thought the whole idea of transgendered bathrooms in public schools was no big deal.  Patrick tried to stir that up a few years back.  He went so far as to get a bill through the Senate, which he runs.  It died in the House, which listens a bit more to the people.  That'll happen again with tenure.

But property taxes?  Who doesn't want lower property taxes?  And do people understand the "recapture" of school property taxes that's been going on since 1993? Most taxpayers aren't even aware of it, much less know how it works.  (Yes, it's been almost 30 years.  But Texas instituted "no fault" auto insurance earlier than that, yet I've encountered lawyers (!) younger than that change in the law, who think the law hasn't changed, i.e., the "old practice" still applies to wrecks.  "Conventional wisdom" is neither conventional nor wise, and we learn very, very, very slowly.) Schools around the state have slashed administrative staff (even as demands on school districts rise: for testing, for care for special needs students, lunch and breakfast for all, etc., etc.  All laudable programs, but meals don't serve themselves; tests don't distribute and collect and send themselves to be graded; special needs students need special people to help them) and teaching staff due to budget cuts.  Will these cuts in taxes make things better?  Or worse?

Well, the Legislature set the amount to be paid to schools from state funds in a formula, in 1984.  They've done precious little to change that formula since, and haven't fundamentally changed it at all.

Rapid expansion of charter schools is another reason recapture is growing across the state. Recapture is triggered when a district collects more property tax revenue per student than the state allows it to have. When a student leaves a traditional ISD for a charter school, the amount of property tax revenue that district collects per student increases. That means the district is more likely to collect excess property taxes than allowed by the state because the district has fewer students to support. School districts that have many charter schools within their boundaries, such as Houston ISD, end up paying recapture revenue due to the large number of students lost to charter schools.

Recapture is not the villain. The Legislature has never provided an adequate level of funding for our schools and refuses to make annual adjustments for inflation. As property values rise across the state and additional students move to charter schools, more districts will appear wealthy but, in reality, everyone is underfunded.

"Recapture" is the taking of local school tax revenues by the Lege to be equitably spread around the state. It's the villain in the picture for most people.  But actually, it's the way the Lege funds schools now.  And they want to make it worse; mostly to drive students into private schools (those who can afford it) to aid the white flight that's been a feature of public schools since 1954.  The whole point is to leave the public schools to non-white students, and let them languish there.  Believe me, there'll be another push for school vouchers when these property tax cuts are approved.  Probably approved by a minority of a minority (numerical in both cases) of Texans:

Texans are heading to the polls for the 2022 primary, and voters will choose party nominees for statewide seats, including governor, and district-based congressional and legislative seats. Early voting lasts through Feb. 25, and election day is March 1. Historically, voter participation in midterm primary elections is dismal in Texas, with less than a quarter of registered voters casting ballots most years.

Turnout in the 2022 primary was low after the first four days of early voting. As of Feb. 17, the turnout data published by the Texas secretary of state does not reflect thousands of mail-in ballots reported by counties on their own websites. For instance, Fort Bend County reports that 1,400 mail-in ballots have been returned, but the state reports only two mail-in ballots there. In-person ballots are largely accounted for in the state’s data. A spokesperson for the secretary of state said the office is aware of the discrepancies and working with counties to correct the information.

The problems of mail-in ballots is one thing.  The difficulty voting at all is another.  And this is just the March primary.  There'll be a general election in May, when the tax measures are on the ballot.  Don't expect turnout to be much better, or the mail-in ballot fiasco to be fixed by then. 

As Molly Ivins used to say, for precisely the same reasons as now:  "Ain't nothin' but good times ahead!"  Ya gotta laugh; cryin' just makes it worse.