{"id":453083,"date":"2026-10-01T10:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453083\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T10:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:48:07","slug":"opinion-students-outside-city-limits-pay-price-for-library-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453083\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Students outside city limits pay price for library access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The city\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/guides.mysapl.org\/CountyFee\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">new $30 annual library-card fee for\u00a0Bexar County residents<\/a> who live outside San Antonio\u2019s city limits means that two children sitting in the same public-school classroom can have different access to the same library system solely because they live on opposite sides of a municipal boundary.<\/p>\n<p>That is particularly troubling for families with children who live in the enormous area served by San Antonio\u2019s regional economy and public schools, but happen to fall outside the city limits.<\/p>\n<p>A $30 fee may sound insignificant to city officials, but it is another barrier for families already struggling with household expenses, and it is multiplied for every child who needs a card.<\/p>\n<p>The city estimates the fee will generate more than $1 million annually.<\/p>\n<p>The city is putting a price tag on children\u2019s access to books.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio should be expanding access to literacy, not stealing it from children who happen to live on the wrong side of a city line.<\/p>\n<p>H-E-B\u2019s anti-competitive deed restrictions, commonly called covenants, contribute to the continuation or emergence of food deserts, which remain a persistent problem for San Antonians, particularly in our low-income and non-white communities.<\/p>\n<p>Lots restricted by these covenants often stay empty, sometimes for decades, which can reduce foot-traffic to adjacent stores.<\/p>\n<p>The language of these covenants hinder competition, and their use should be stopped by municipal ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>We should have a similar ordinance in San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>A public service announcement from the office of the Texas Secretary of State says \u201cVote with confidence. This is Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the Texas Department of Public Safety\u00a0sent thousands of backlogged voter registration applications to election offices of the state\u2019s 10-most populated counties where many Democrats\u00a0live. Some registration applications were filled out back in October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Now, less than 30 days before early voting, county election officials face the massive challenge of preparing for the 2026 midterm while processing thousands of applications. The state off loaded approximately 45,000 applications onto Bexar County.<\/p>\n<p>Those in charge of voter registration at the state level have created a huge mess, and it\u2019s now the job of county election officials to clean it up.<\/p>\n<p>Confidence? Sorry, I\u2019m not feeling it at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city\u2019s new $30 annual library-card fee for\u00a0Bexar County residents who live outside San Antonio\u2019s city limits means&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-453083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453083","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=453083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}