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Samson's Wig

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  1. I completely agree with all of this, and I'm well aware of it. But I'm tired of terrible AISD administrators using the state as an excuse for their barrels full of failures. It's not an either/or situation; they are both awful. It's the same trap people fall into with partisan political thinking. Just because one party is worse doesn't excuse the other's foolishness. They're both awful. I understand that sometimes you have to hold your nose and go with the lesser of two evils, but that isn't the situation with our failing school districts. We should demand better from them, even if they're playing against a stacked deck. If I complain about AISD more than the state in this thread, well, it's mainly because this is a thread about AISD. It's also because there isn't much to say about the threat coming from the state that hasn't been said. It's clear what is happening there, and while I have no idea how to stop a handful of cult-member billionaires from purchasing our state legislature for their own ends, I can look at who we hire to run our school district and know we can do much better.
  2. The only thing anyone can know for sure is that whatever Segura is saying isn't the truth. That he's throwing his own employees under the bus is interesting, to say the least. Ultimately, he tried to fuck with a rich-person school that 100% needed to be closed based on the cost per student, and now he's finding out what happens when you try to take toys away from grown-up toddlers with money and influence. One interesting aspect is that the last time AISD tried to "fix" these problems, Gina Hinojosa played the race card from the East side and got the can kicked down the road. Now it's rich white folks on the west side doing the same thing. The result will be the same; AISD will continue spiraling until it can't be kept alive. My primary concern with this current kicking of the can is that it will increase the likelihood of a TEA takeover in the next couple of years, and then we're all fucked.
  3. Truth. And Austin doesn't crack the top 25 in this regard. However, some really terrible cities are in the top ten for tax burden for residents (of note, Detroit is #1 with a bullet), so the notion posited upthread that high city taxes are indicative of a real-world, grown-up city is more than a little silly. It's every bit as indicative of a mismanaged shithole. Some of the best American cities and some of the worst American cities have high overall tax rates. In other words, it's a terrible basis for determining whether a city is functional, productive, and a good place to live. For what little we get in Austin, and it is very little, we already pay plenty, in my opinion. That so much of the budget is wasted on a completely useless police force is a further indictment of city management, not a justification to give them more money for graft projects. Fret not, ye fans of higher taxes that incompetent/criminal buffoons waste, this city has, for years, managed to pad the general fund by ripping off citizens on their utility bills when we vote down their requests for more tax revenue. Everyone should budget for an unexplained increase in their water and electricity usage next year, despite no behavioral changes at home. If you don't check your bill closely every month, and you should, you might be surprised by how often they make up numbers to see what you're willing to pay. I've caught them more times than I can remember over the years, and they back down every time because they know they're doing it, and that most will pay them without thought. At least with the old meters, you could catch them lying. The new electric meters allow them to make up whatever numbers they want and they push back harder now when you challenge them on it. Now it's a free-for-all, and they'll get their pound of flesh whether Prop Q passes or not.
  4. Usual suspects, usual suspecting. The either/oring going on is fucking boring. Yes, we need to pay significant taxes to have a prosperous big city. Yes, we need to watch every penny and audit the fuck out of any city, but especially one with a history of major boondoggles and straight-up graft, along with a suspiciously zealous desire to avoid being audited. These are not mutually exclusive ideas. For those interested, below are the U.S. cities with the highest taxes (factoring in income tax, property tax, sales tax, and auto tax). Depending on how you work the numbers, these cities will shift places a bit, but generally speaking, these are the top ten. While there are some decent places to live on this list (I've always been partial to Chicago and enjoyed living there, for example), I think most of us can look at this list and immediately recognize that high taxes do not necessarily equate to a "grown-up real-world" city. Sometimes high taxes equate to a poorly managed shithole, and I don't think it's unreasonable that some people don't want that for Austin. If the people running this city want to be taken seriously when they ask for more money, they need to start acting like serious people and treating their responsibilities with the seriousness they deserve. Meanwhile, for anyone who actually pays significant taxes in this town, you already know that when Prop Q fails we're just going to see a mysterious and unexpected bump on our water bill for a while. These assholes will get their pound of flesh one way or another. 1. Detroit, MI 2. Bridgeport, CT 3. Newark, NJ 4. Baltimore, MD 5. Milwaukee, WI 6. Chicago, IL 7. Louisville, KY 8. Philadelphia, PA 9. Des Moines, IA 10. Kansas City, MO
  5. There is a lot of information out there on what has happened with HISD you can find with a quick search. The short answer is: YES. In the past, TEA has "taken over" districts at times with little to no impact for students and families, keeping programming and classrooms essentially the same and focusing on bigger picture issues at the administrative level. That is not what is happening now, at all, due to who is now running things and what their goals are. I wouldn't leave my kids in a school taken over by TEA unless I had absolutely no other choice.
  6. Thanks. I thought that was the language from the original proposal. They're changing it, apparently announcing today. We're in the same boat regarding whether to pack up and move or rent something in another school district altogether. Even though we're AISD, Vandegrift is the closest high school to our house, which is yet another failure of AISD in prioritizing feel-good policies over rational decision-making over the last 30 years. I had to drive one of my kids to the Performing Arts Center (brilliantly located as far away as possible from where most kids in Austin live) last night in rush hour traffic, and I wanted to hang myself by the time I got back. It took an hour and forty-five minutes. My biggest concern with my kids starting high school next year is that their high school experience will be disrupted by TEA taking over their junior or senior year. I don't want them to have to change schools at that point if we can avoid it. But that likely means moving or going the private school route starting next year, which the kids do not want to do.
  7. Where did you read that? Grandfathering was in the initial plan they presented, but they are adjusting that plan and making a new announcement today. I have no idea what to expect, other than it will likely change yet again before a final vote. They know full well that as soon as they announce they are cutting off transfers completely, a significant number of families will immediately start making plans to leave AISD. I expect to hear that they are closing programs like the Fine Arts Academy to transfers, but not a blanket ban on transfers altogether. It was challenging to transfer into a decent school before all this started, as they tend to be overcrowded. Now, assuming that transfers exist at all, it will be even more difficult. I wouldn't make any plans based on the ability to transfer.
  8. What kind of school admits students who want to be members of TPUSA? More power to anyone who finds that type of thinking agreeable, freedom of association/assembly and all that, but how on earth does anyone capable of thinking that way qualify for admission to any university outside of those who are blatantly evangelical, i.e. not even remotely academic in nature? Don't they have churches and church communities they can go and seclude themselves in and feel safe from having to learn anything outside of the dogma? How many safe spaces do they need? Isn't Liberty University enough? Is this really the underlying issue driving this nonsense? That people with non-functional critical thinking skills are now a suspect class and need government protection? That's what this ultimately boils down to, isn't it? Ensuring dumbasses evangelicals get the same special treatment that groups who have suffered historical prejudice receive? Even women are not fully deemed a suspect class, but we're going to backdoor evangelicals into the strict scrutiny club by way of presidential fiat. Ameica isn't Americaning anymore.
  9. New administration?
  10. This is the part I'm more concernd about, personally.
  11. Can confirm. My kids are at Lamar. We've been getting the warnings for weeks. Fuck these dumbasses who don't vaccinate their children. Fuck AISD for not enforcing it, as most of them would likely go get their child vaccinated if the kid wasn't allowed in school and they were forced to watch them all day at home. And fuck the parents who willfully decide not to vaccinate and fill out the damn form the most. You don't want to participate in society? Great. You can homeschool your disease-ridden children.
  12. How can any Texan take this piece of shit seriously? I don't care what your political beliefs are, every Texan should be able to spot a bullshit artist that is this obvious, right? Right‽‽‽
  13. Lawyers: I don't actually know shit, but I can think nonlinearly and solve nuanced problems. I'm fun to party with, and your wife secretly wants to fuck me because I can flirt better than you can and know how to make eye contact. My liver or a jilted wife/lover will eventually kill me. Engineers: I can solve every problem on earth better than anyone else, no matter the context, so long as it is black-and-white, with no nuance. I could be a great lawyer or doctor if I wanted to be, but that seemed too easy, so I stuck with trade school. No one wants to party with me, but I've made some cool friends, usually by building things that explode, and I occasionally get invited to parties where I end up making everyone else uncomfortable. Your wife doesn't want to fuck me unless she, too, is on the spectrum. A miscalculation and some hubris will eventually kill me. Doctors: I studied one thing and do one thing really well, and I think that means I know everything about everything. I should probably run for political office. No one even invites me to their parties, unless they want to ask me to invest in their latest venture. Your wife doesn't really want to fuck me, but she still thinks about it in the context of being my next wife and enjoying my big house and frequent vacations. I'll live longer than the rest of you, but I'll spend most of that time focused on a weird collection or a hobby that I don't really enjoy but makes me feel artificially masculine, like fishing or motorcycles.
  14. Thank you, yes. I've conflated them in my head somehow.
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