Our friend Steve Sullivan at Robson Ranch Conservatives shared this article in a recent newsletter.  It’s worth a read!

Part 2 – Raise Teacher Pay?

The last newsletter I mentioned the failing grades that our schools are producing. Of course, the immediate response is always – “we need to increase teacher pay”.

In Denton ISD, a first year teacher with no experience makes $59,000 a year. Keep in mind “a year” in the education world is 187 days. That equates to a daily rate of $315.50.

The rest of Texans work 260 days. In Denton, the median income is $37,236. That amounts to a daily rate of $143.21. The 260 days includes paid holidays and paid vacation days. That means teachers work 72% of the days that everyone else works,

but gets paid 63% more income.

Increased pay is not the solution! In fact, the lack of money is not the problem. The school board knows how much money is available. The problem is the spending. In the last two years the board has approved budget they cannot afford. In 2022-2023 they had a deficit budget of $33 MILLION.

In 2023 the board gave raises amounting to $10 million. Money they didn’t have to spend. Remember, they went $33,000,000 in the hole in the previous school year. And they spent it any way.

But, don’t worry… in 2023-2024 they “whittled it down” to a $19 MILLION deficit!

Keep in mind, this was not the result of some catastrophic, once in a lifetime event.

In a short, TWO YEAR period they have spent $52,000,000 more than they had in the bank. Does the term “reckless spending” mean anything?!

This was intentional.  School board member Mia Price was quoted in the newspaper recently (Nov 15, 2024) –

“It is what it is, and we’re in this position because of a lack of funding. I get it. I mean, it’s not our fault”

Of course, it was their fault. No one else has access to the checkbook. The school board hired the Superintendent. The board approved every dime that was budgeted and spent and every hiring decision made. Of course, they are going to blame “the State”. They, the school folk, had been told they were going to get an additional $4 BILLION. But it didn’t happen.

How often have you spend money that you “thought” you were going to get? And then not to get it? Hopefully, just once. Apparently the school board keeps making the same mistake over and over again. Spending money they don’t have.

All they have to do is hold a bond election and tell all the school employees to vote for it. At the same time they tell everyone else “it is for the children”. And the majority of voters, like sheep, fall for it. Then when tax time rolls around (as it always does) they complain about the taxes they pay.

Why do you think they have bond elections in May? Less than 10% of voters get out to vote and school employees are the largest bloc. Go figure.

Let’s not forget about the two principals who were charged with electioneering by using the taxpayer-funded email system to tell teachers who to vote for. Then this school board paraded them in front of the public as heroes!!

All this to highlight the two things taxpayers can do – (1) Find good, conservative people to run for School Board and (2) fire all of the woke, liberal-minded Board Members.