{"id":37800,"date":"2025-11-06T08:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37800\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T08:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:21:07","slug":"families-gave-north-texas-schools-a-vote-of-confidence-in-tax-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37800\/","title":{"rendered":"Families gave North Texas schools a vote of confidence in tax elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aging North Texas school districts have navigated a tough landscape in recent years, pulled into culture wars and faced with plateauing or declining enrollment and voter skepticism of large capital projects. The latter is for good reason. Residents\u2019 tax bills continue to soar along with their property values. <\/p>\n

Yet voters in Dallas-Fort Worth made it clear this week that they support their public schools<\/a> and the fundamental job of educating children, even at a higher personal cost. School districts across the region asked for tax increases to pay for teacher raises and general operations, and voters said yes. That\u2019s a boost of confidence that we want public schools that have the resources to offer the next generation a great education. <\/p>\n

That investment, however, should come with continued accountability. Support might weaken in the future if voters feel districts haven\u2019t carefully managed their finances.<\/p>\n

Tax rate increases for school operations passed in at least six school districts in the region, with requests ranging from a few cents in some districts to some 12 cents in Garland ISD<\/a>. The propositions passed comfortably in many of these communities, including in the Garland and Rockwall school districts, where vocal critics tried to sway people to vote against the tax increases. Voters also approved tax increases for operations in Denton, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Northwest and Carroll ISDs. <\/p>\n

Opinion<\/p>\n

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School districts made a compelling case that they need the money to offer competitive pay to teachers and other staffers and support special education programs, school safety and other core functions. Even as the state Legislature wisely approved $8.5 billion in new dollars for public schools this year, funding gaps remain.<\/p>\n

While school taxpayers have been skittish lately about approving debt for capital improvements, voters in Richardson<\/a> and Midlothian ISDs gave the green light to several bond proposals. These will pay for new schools and renovations, technology upgrades and career and technical education centers.<\/p>\n

We believe some districts earned good will by doing things like consolidating campuses and shrinking some expenses. For instance, Carroll ISD asked for an increase in the maintenance and operations tax rate after the school board lowered the rate that pays for bond debt.<\/p>\n

This editorial page supported some of these tax increases based on the track record of the school districts. While we were concerned about the size of the proposed tax rate increase in Garland ISD, we recognized that the school district has delivered results, raising its academic standing over the years and exemplifying the advantages of in-district school choice with an array of magnets and specialty programs. <\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s up to district leaders to reward voters\u2019 trust by being transparent about their spending and by ensuring they are adopting and supporting reforms that lead to the best outcomes for kids. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aging North Texas school districts have navigated a tough landscape in recent years, pulled into culture wars and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[112,163,288,287,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-37800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-editorials","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}