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The destruction of America's public education system


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On 12/12/2024 at 9:01 PM, Pancho said:

In no way should Lewisville ISD be closing 5 elementary schools. 

 

 

On 12/13/2024 at 10:53 AM, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Why do you say that? Looking looks like enrollment down, schools below 40% capacity. Student/teacher ration of like 13/1, little land in district for new homes ? 

From the dallas morning news:

Quote

The harsh reality is that North Texas school districts need to adapt to lower enrollments, a trend that is here to stay. Lewisville ISD projects enrollment to settle at about 45,000 students over the next decade, down from a peak of 53,000, this newspaper reported.

 

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1 hour ago, Vegas64 said:

 

From the dallas morning news:

 

They could probably adapt better if a certain wheelchair bound governor wasn't holding the entire public school system hostage with needed budget funds while he tries for (a third time?) to ram through public funding of private schools.

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6 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

They could probably adapt better if a certain wheelchair bound governor wasn't holding the entire public school system hostage with needed budget funds while he tries for (a third time?) to ram through public funding of private schools.

I agree wholeheartedly. But that said, if falling birthcounts and populations are truly impacting enrollments (and project to be in the near future), why not rationalize some of the schools and pool resources, teachers, and students together to optimize or "load balance" if you will? That is what it sounds like is happening in Lewisville which would make sense as it is not a destination for young families or folks looking to raise families for the most part.

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Haven’t really kept up with this thread but how is “universal school choice” different from vouchers?

I know the conservative Dems backing Republican Dustin Burrows for Tx House Speaker are all for it so is this shifting money to charter schools instead of going full voucher? Does anyone know? I haven’t heard much about this lately. 

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On 12/17/2024 at 11:40 PM, Vegas64 said:

I agree wholeheartedly. But that said, if falling birthcounts and populations are truly impacting enrollments (and project to be in the near future), why not rationalize some of the schools and pool resources, teachers, and students together to optimize or "load balance" if you will? That is what it sounds like is happening in Lewisville which would make sense as it is not a destination for young families or folks looking to raise families for the most part.

Flower mound schools are part of Lewisville isd and are quite strong public education. Throw on Hebron as well and folks absolutely are moving to the district for schools. Lewisville hs and the colony are not exactly destinations tho. 

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1 hour ago, bluto said:

Flower mound schools are part of Lewisville isd and are quite strong public education. Throw on Hebron as well and folks absolutely are moving to the district for schools. Lewisville hs and the colony are not exactly destinations tho. 

Today I learned Lewisville ISD, with the schools you mentioned, is somehow not a destination district. 🤣

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1 hour ago, LurkingHorn said:

Today I learned Lewisville ISD, with the schools you mentioned, is somehow not a destination district. 🤣

It’s split, as mentioned above. Some schools are very much in demand and considered “destinations” - and others are not. Not saying it’s accurate or fair, but it is a thing.

Same for Richardson ISD, which closed four schools last year. Some schools are in high demand (like Pearce and Richardson HS) while others are struggling and don’t draw from their neighborhoods (which are either getting magnet transfers or going private). But all these districts are still being deeply affected by the total abdication of traditional support for public education from our current governor and incoming legislature. 

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3 hours ago, bluto said:

Flower mound schools are part of Lewisville isd and are quite strong public education. Throw on Hebron as well and folks absolutely are moving to the district for schools. Lewisville hs and the colony are not exactly destinations tho. 

I did not realize Flower moung was LISD. What is Flower mound like these days? The couple of folks I know who live there are my age (read: old) and bought in the 90's and just haven't sold yet. Surprised it hasn't had a sharp downfall from it's peak like Coppell did about 15-20 years ago once the upper middles started moving out en masse, though I heard the Indians still love Coppell and Indians are great indicators for real estate in North Texas...

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  • 3 weeks later...

https://houstonlanding.org/hisd-leaders-failed-to-get-board-approval-for-up-to-870-million-in-spending-records-show/

The board is bullshit. The superintendent is bullshit. But hey, they are fixing the rodent problem at Lanier MS, by using sticky traps so they can be cruel as fuck to animals too.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-isd-rat-infestation/285-0b5b6764-e8aa-42f0-8f85-75808ccfdc36

I guess rodent piss and shit is part of making america great in education. Fuckers.   Note that at around 1:50 in the video he looks to be fighting back a smile when talking about the maintenance crew being on top of it.    Also remember, this is the replacement crew since he fired/gutted the maintenance crews and specialists.  Big fucking surprise it is failing.

Edited by Nivek
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Eanes closed an elementary school this week. I can’t believe Westlake is out of money and/or short on students, but there it is…

I never realized that Eanes had two elementaries that were next door neighbors, like you can walk from one to another across a parking lot.

Valley View Elementary, the school they closed, served mostly the Cuernavaca neighborhood even though it was miles away from the community.

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12 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Eanes closed an elementary school this week. I can’t believe Westlake is out of money and/or short on students, but there it is…

I never realized that Eanes had two elementaries that were next door neighbors, like you can walk from one to another across a parking lot.

Valley View Elementary, the school they closed, served mostly the Cuernavaca neighborhood even though it was miles away from the community.

I think birthrates were slowing even before Covid-19, and Covid-19 threw birth rates off the cliff. So I expect more of the same once the Covid babies that never were, should be 6-16 years old.

Edited by Vegas64
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Anybody got an eye on this Keller isd shit show? 
 

Richie white folk pushing to rename entire isd as alliance isd. Then split the district in half where the richies reclaim the Keller isd name, leaving the debt with alliance isd poors, Keller gets football stadium, and bc its a “new district” gets a state funding boost. 

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8 minutes ago, bluto said:

Anybody got an eye on this Keller isd shit show? 
 

Richie white folk pushing to rename entire isd as alliance isd. Then split the district in half where the richies reclaim the Keller isd name, leaving the debt with alliance isd poors, Keller gets football stadium, and bc its a “new district” gets a state funding boost. 

I live in Keller, my kids have gone and go to Keller.  Oldest is a Sr at Texas and two youngers are Srs at Keller (so really just about done with it)  It's been a shit show here for a while as this is one of the boards that got taken over by the Patriot Mobile fundie fucks a few years back.  This is just another one of their half-baked, done mostly in secret shitshow plans that who the fuck knows what will happen.  They pushed out the awesome superintendent of the district and the one who is in now apparently has said tonight that she is ready to offer her resignation.   The morons are in charge and as Brisket likes to say there is no bottom.  

That said, people are having fun with it...this page is kind of funny shit for Facebook.

 

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32 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

I live in Keller, my kids have gone and go to Keller.  Oldest is a Sr at Texas and two youngers are Srs at Keller (so really just about done with it)  It's been a shit show here for a while as this is one of the boards that got taken over by the Patriot Mobile fundie fucks a few years back.  This is just another one of their half-baked, done mostly in secret shitshow plans that who the fuck knows what will happen.  They pushed out the awesome superintendent of the district and the one who is in now apparently has said tonight that she is ready to offer her resignation.   The morons are in charge and as Brisket likes to say there is no bottom.  

That said, people are having fun with it...this page is kind of funny shit for Facebook.

 

Genuinely curious for input from a local, is my summary accurate? 

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25 minutes ago, bluto said:

Genuinely curious for input from a local, is my summary accurate? 

Well probably but that's part of the problem it's conjecture since a lot of this scheme has been hatched in secret behind closed doors.  The rationale hasn't exactly been transparent.  I think the cover story for this that has come out is "well we are not getting state funding we need and so we are exploring all options on how to deal with that" but the details on why this is an option that would improve anything is....lacking. 

I can do simple math and say living here yea even without a state funding boost for being a "new district" (no idea if that's a part of this...like I said no details and I don't keep up enough to know if "new" districts get a boost simply for being new) that if the tax base in Keller proper was only supporting the population in those schools in Keller the per-student allocation would probably be higher.  But as has been said a million times on this thread that's such a short-sighted way of looking at education as I tend to be one of those "a rising tide raises all ships" kind of guys when it comes to education.

I'm also fairly certain that the fundie fuck crowd thinks it will be easier to maintain their grip on a Keller-only district and do with it what they will.  

I got about 130 days to care in a family sense directly, and eventually, we will be getting out of Keller. But, as long as I am here still plan to vote against these assholes because they represent everything that is going horribly wrong in the destruction of public education.  

Edit - sounds like tonight was a shitshow.  Coming to a Nation's Capital Near You IN 4 SHORT DAYS

 

Edited by Surly Bevo
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4 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

I live in Keller, my kids have gone and go to Keller.  Oldest is a Sr at Texas and two youngers are Srs at Keller (so really just about done with it)  It's been a shit show here for a while as this is one of the boards that got taken over by the Patriot Mobile fundie fucks a few years back.  This is just another one of their half-baked, done mostly in secret shitshow plans that who the fuck knows what will happen.  They pushed out the awesome superintendent of the district and the one who is in now apparently has said tonight that she is ready to offer her resignation.   The morons are in charge and as Brisket likes to say there is no bottom.  

That said, people are having fun with it...this page is kind of funny shit for Facebook.

 

 

 

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Just catching up on this Keller ISD stuff and holy shit these board members should be nowhere near a school board. I'm in a nearby HEB ISD and luckily we have not had the loonies taking over our district like Keller and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, but this is right down the street so very eye-opening. 

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19 hours ago, Vegas64 said:

I think birthrates were slowing even before Covid-19, and Covid-19 threw birth rates off the cliff. So I expect more of the same once the Covid babies that never were, should be 6-16 years old.

And then there will be a space shortage.

This is no fucking different than rash decisions to close urban schools due to declining enrollment without looking at neighborhood demographics.   A good example is Brentwood Elementary. It was on the chopping block 25 years ago due to being at 50% capacity.  My wife grew up in that hood and back then she said there were no kids and all the neighbors were over 60. Their kids had aged out of the schools but empty nesters were still living in their own homes.  Luckily, AISD decided against closing it and once the neighborhood housing turned over to the next generation, the school was so overcapacity they tore it down and built a school twice the original size.

 

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3 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

And then there will be a space shortage.

This is no fucking different than rash decisions to close urban schools due to declining enrollment without looking at neighborhood demographics.   A good example is Brentwood Elementary. It was on the chopping block 25 years ago due to being at 50% capacity.  My wife grew up in that hood and back then she said there were no kids and all the neighbors were over 60. Their kids had aged out of the schools but empty nesters were still living in their own homes.  Luckily, AISD decided against closing it and once the neighborhood housing turned over to the next generation, the school was so overcapacity they tore it down and built a school twice the original size.

 

I don’t think that’s how demographics/birth rates work. That neighborhood that got turned over, that new generation averaged around 2 kids per family, now it’s flirting with 1.6… and closer to if not below 1.5 i bet in urban infill areas.

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6 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

 

Never heard of Tracy Johnson but this is something I deeply respect. Even if it's for an immoral or wrong reason, I deeply respect people who resign elected/appointed positions when they're asked to do things they find objectionable. For far too long we've seen this attitude "well I don't agree with this but I'm gonna stay here and let it happen" smother and suffocate people and those who they serve.

13 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

And then there will be a space shortage.

This is no fucking different than rash decisions to close urban schools due to declining enrollment without looking at neighborhood demographics.   A good example is Brentwood Elementary. It was on the chopping block 25 years ago due to being at 50% capacity.  My wife grew up in that hood and back then she said there were no kids and all the neighbors were over 60. Their kids had aged out of the schools but empty nesters were still living in their own homes.  Luckily, AISD decided against closing it and once the neighborhood housing turned over to the next generation, the school was so overcapacity they tore it down and built a school twice the original size.

 

A local ISD in DFW just closed 5 elementary schools over neighborhood demographics. The blue hairs are more concerned with their property values going up so they stomp their feet at city council meetings when a new apartment complex is proposed. You can't convince them of the economics of it either. I told a bunch of SFH owners that the local apartment complex they oppose was subsidizing all of their children and they reacted as if I had kicked a baby. The hate for children in this area is off the charts.

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47 minutes ago, bluto said:

I don’t think that’s how demographics/birth rates work. That neighborhood that got turned over, that new generation averaged around 2 kids per family, now it’s flirting with 1.6… and closer to if not below 1.5 i bet in urban infill areas.

I'd be surprised if the average is below two.  I'm across Burnet in Allandale and I wouldn't be surprised if half of the households with kids have 3+.  It's become a bit of a badge of honor to have more kids.  I can't even think of a classmate in my kid's grade that was an only child.  I can name two dozen that were one of 3 - 5 siblings. 

Also, Crestview & Brentwood are denser now that many single family lots now having 2 stand alone on each lot.  

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41 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

Never heard of Tracy Johnson but this is something I deeply respect. Even if it's for an immoral or wrong reason, I deeply respect people who resign elected/appointed positions when they're asked to do things they find objectionable. For far too long we've seen this attitude "well I don't agree with this but I'm gonna stay here and let it happen" smother and suffocate people and those who they serve.

A local ISD in DFW just closed 5 elementary schools over neighborhood demographics. The blue hairs are more concerned with their property values going up so they stomp their feet at city council meetings when a new apartment complex is proposed. You can't convince them of the economics of it either. I told a bunch of SFH owners that the local apartment complex they oppose was subsidizing all of their children and they reacted as if I had kicked a baby. The hate for children in this area is off the charts.

1) Sometimes it is better to stay on to be a thorn in the side of the fuckery.   This is likely the motivations of Jasmine, AOC, Bernie, and others who stick it out.  

2) Olds are shitty to children is nothing new.  Grow up around them enough, and you will find out that the kindly mentoring types are outnumbered by the pathetic and self-serving assholes who think they have paid their dues and are owed and entitled to being catered to.   Especially if they grew up somewhere else.    

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Maybe Brentwood is the outlier, but Austin itself is a birthing desert. From 2022 report, Austin was dead last in the state for metro birth rate and fam size (3.8% and 2.88 respectively) while the other metros are top 10 nationally. Austin was 5th lowest in the country. 

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Brentwood was below the flight path for the old airport, which kept families with children away.

Once the airport closed, Brentwood was close to downtown with no airport noise and lots of old houses.

I’m not familiar with the neighborhood, but I would guess that a lot of the old houses got knocked down and replaced with new.

The removal of the airport traffic plus a modernized school led to a generation of kids in the neighborhood, which helped to fill the schools.

Can it last? The demographic projections show a stable population for at least ten years, so I would say yes, but there is a chance that empty nesters won’t leave and the neighborhood will gradually see fewer new kids.

The McCallum vertical is going through a wave caused by the airport closing and being redeveloped. Eventually it will fade but not yet.

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4 hours ago, bluto said:

Maybe Brentwood is the outlier, but Austin itself is a birthing desert. From 2022 report, Austin was dead last in the state for metro birth rate and fam size (3.8% and 2.88 respectively) while the other metros are top 10 nationally. Austin was 5th lowest in the country. 

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20 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

i believe this is very popular in Southern states. counties have a white school district and a district for the blacks 

Call their bluff. If they think they are so high and mighty that their precious little children can't go to school with BIPOCs, then why don't they put their mouth where their money is and cut a fat tuition check?

Oh because, they can't! They are more closely like those "others" they purport to be better than then they are the rich. 

I'm reminded of this quote, "I'm closer to LeBron, than you are to me" - Brian Scalabrine

Keller is closer to poor than they are rich. So split that plum, dog.

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