Of all the issues facing folks in my community in November, I would have thought the least complicated was Katy ISD’s bond issue.
We have a community growing so explosively that schools are filling as fast as they can be built. Furthermore, there are repairs, improvements, new (and replacement) equipment… none of which are covered by operating expenses. They require capital, and in a school district, that’s generally a bond issue.
Yet voters turned down KISD’s bond proposal in May, and heels are digging in — again.
No matter how I look at this, what I read, or who I talk to, it all comes back to the same thing: some folks in Katy do not want to put more money into the district. KISD is (pick your favorite, cuz they’re all being used) wasteful, extravagant, irresponsible, padding, not educating, spoiling the kids, and too big already.
Mostly, all these arguments boil down to money, and an obvious lack of desire to spend it.
Polimom understands the underpinning complaint: it is danged expensive to live out here. Our taxes are already extremely high, without adding anything to the equation. But our taxes will not increase as a result of this bond.
Where, then, is the objection? Is it to the cost of the individual schools? People surely realize that a school planned to house 700 students (as many other districts build) costs rather a lot less than one designed for 1000.
Where else do folks think money will come from to keep up with the growth? From our massive business and industry base? Of course not, because unlike the urban Houston areas, Katy doesn’t have major tax contributors to share the burden with its residents.
We are, quite simply, a massive residential area, and for the most part, that means we have to float our own services. That’s why our taxes are high — not because KISD is on a frivolous spending spree.
Instead of getting in the way of the school district’s ability to serve the community, all this wonderful civic energy might be better spent addressing the problem of diversifying the tax base itself, rather than starving the school district that relies upon it.