HISD $1.89 billion bond initiative could create tons of new jobs for Houstonians (Vega: schools, college)

[davidt1]

Practicing music in a closet is nothing.

Homeless student is Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist

[testmo]

yes this is what we should strive for! the fact we have children that are homeless...

her story is far from anything we should be proud of except for what she has done DESPITE, well everything. try to replicate that out in a general population.


that is like the people wanting to cut all funding to social services yet go overseas and hate on countries for having makeshift tent cities immediately outside urban areas. like somehow that is a blight. yet at the same time they want the US to do the same thing

[davidt1]

That amazing student is just one of many examples that fancy classrooms with laptops and $300 chairs don't necessary produce great students. I have two nephews who went to some of the worst high schools in CA and went on to UCLA and Harvard on scholarships and became medical doctors.

Don't argue just for the sake of arguing. Instead, inspire kids with stories of people like Samantha Garvey the next time they whine that they can't text while driving anymore, or that their laptop isn't a Mac, or that they have to practice in the hallway, etc., etc.

[houston-nomad]

Race to the bottom! Go, America.

[marksmu]

Originally Posted by testmo

private market is rarely cheaper than public.

my taxes aren't supposed to support your religion. you want vouchers and God? get your church and fellow church goers to implement a paid for voucher program to your religious institutions. or you just want my money to do that?

public education, securing this for everyone, making sure it is the best for everyone is one of the best things America has ever done

you think Texas teachers are unionized? typical libertarian rant. government is the problem for everything, problems brought on by taking government regulations out are somehow still the problem of government. damned if you do damned if you dont

Private markets are always cheaper unless the government subsidizes the industry....like obamacare....10 years of taxes to fund 6 years of care.

Also vouchers don't divert your money to religious...the cap on a voucher is your personal inputs from your property taxes...if I pay $5000 to hisd now I would be allowed to divert my $5000 to the school of my choice.

It's also never what's best for everyone. It drags the best students down, and lifts the bad ones up a little...the ones in the middle are pretty much unaffected.

[Wldgstanglewood]

We have paid enough taxes to HISD, which none of our childen have ever attended. Now they want more for a failing educational system? No.

[houston-nomad]

Yeah. Let that ship sink! Who needs an educated population anyway.

[feufoma]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Governments are like drug addicts for your tax money. Give them some and they come for more again and again. Read up on the school situations in CA. For years they took money from tax payers, each time promising the money would fix the school problems. It never did. Don't let TX become another CA. Vote no on all and any tax increases.

Um, approval would entail issuance of bonds not a tax increase. The purchase of the bonds wouldn't be with "tax dollars" but rather as investments.

[vegankris]

Originally Posted by marksmu

New schools are necessary to address over crowding and actual dangerous conditions. New schools are not necessary because a roof leaks. A roofing contractor is needed. New schools are not necessary because there is some mold in the school - all buildings in Texas have mold.... New schools are not needed to address the fact that band members must practice in a hallway, or that the drama department does not have a stage to practice on...those are not good reasons to saddle tax payers with the costs of new schools.

When a school becomes in such a state of disrepair that the actual cost of repair and the expected life of those repairs is the same, or close to the same as the repairs then you replace it. That is how it is done in the real world. New schools should not be built to ensure that the drama department and the band don't share a classroom....we don't need separate athletic facilities for football and other sports, etc...the list goes on and on and on.

I saw the news on the Northshore (I think it was northshore) school they want to tear down and rebuild completely...there was nothing wrong with the school except that parts of it were overcrowded....Their solution was to tear the whole thing down and build a new one rather than utilize the portable buildings that they are using now and expanding.

They act as if a portable building is not a good enough classroom for a temporary problem...its plenty good. A kid taught in a portable building will learn just as much, just as well, as one taught in a state of the art fancy new classroom.

The schools want new buildings, new technology, new everything but it is far from necessary.

Okay, I need to chime in on this issue. As a parent with 3 kids in HISD, I am very involved. I have been to more school board meetings than I care to admit to. I have attended every discussion at the HISD central office regarding the school bond issue. You (and others) have such huge misconceptions about what is really happening in these schools.

First, I was really skeptical about voting for this bond because my son's middle school and my oldest son's high school were slated to get money for renovations and repair from the last HISD bond back in 2007 and had yet to see any work done. I questioned everyone, from the superintendent, the project manager for bonds and my trustee about why I should vote for 2 billion dollars more when they had not completed work from the last bond. Unfortunately, the schools in the East End were given all priority 4 status (the last on the priority list) because, well, it's the East End. This I of course find very frustrating, but work has finally commenced on both schools and they are on track to be completed by 2014.

Second, as to all the comments about building new schools because of the appearance or trying to give music and art better facilities, well, that is flat wrong. HISD hired an independent contractor to come in and do an in depth study to evaluate ALL the HISD schools from a certain age. They looked at the schools in terms of this; safety, cost to maintain and continue to fix vs. re-build. They were then ranked based on these criteria.The schools that are slated to be re-built are schools that are costing an arm and a leg to maintain and "fix". These schools are costing HISD much more money over the next several years than actually rebuilding them will cost. This decision to ask for an additional 2 billion dollars was not a flippant decision. It was arrived at after extensive research. Oh and in case you want to throw out a conspiracy rant about how the "independent contractor" will actually be hired to do some work on the schools or will receive some money from the bond, don't waste your time because it's just not true. HISD has had it's problems and they will likely continue to have problems, but thanks to people taking more of an interest in what is going on in the school board, transparency has gotten much better.

On another note, HSPVA got a huge sum of money from donors who want to see the school moved.

[houston-nomad]

Can't rep you anymore Vegankris but thank you for adding some facts to this discussion. People who vote ignorant might as well not vote. But then we'd have about a 1% voter turnout...