BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Five school districts in Bexar County are asking voters for financial relief via the November election ballot.
If you live in one of these districts in Bexar County, your specific ballot will ask you to check “yes” or “no” for an increase in your taxes to go towards the following school districts:
- Boerne ISD: .2 cents
- Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD: .12 cents
- Judson ISD: .45 cents
- East Central ISD: .5 cents
- La Vernia ISD: .3 cents
Increases are for every $100 in value.
Dr. Brian Woods, a former superintendent of Northside ISD, one of San Antonio’s largest school districts, explains that these increases can be used broadly, usually for things like student programming or improving day-to-day operational expenses.
These differ from school bonds, which are for specific projects.
“This is the part of the tax that pays for teacher pay, for custodians, for putting fuel in buses, for turning the lights on in classrooms,” Woods said. “It’s that day-to-day operations piece where districts are really struggling to make ends meet.”
Woods is now the Executive Director for Advocacy for TASA, an organization that supports school leaders across the state.
He said voters can expect to see more of these voter-approved tax rate elections.
“The reason for districts going out for tax rate elections this November, and as I said, last November and very likely next November in different districts, is more of the function of inflation and the lack of additional state funding,” Woods said. “And districts have been surviving on their fund balance. They’ve been passing deficit budgets year after year after year. But at some point that fund balance dries up, right?” Woods said.
Woods points out that this last legislative session was one of the first school funding increases to Texas schools in several years.
Just this year, House Bill 2 allocated $8.5 billion to public schools, which could prompt voters to ask: Why do schools need more money?
Woods said half of that money went toward teacher salary increases, and the other half toward particular expenses.
“There were very few additional dollars for any other employee, think custodians, bus drivers, child nutrition workers, instructional assistants, secretaries in the schools,” Woods said. “So a lot of districts are using it partially for teacher pay, but partially to go help pay all those other staff who were important to the way a school operates.”
If you go to your school district’s website, it will list exactly how they plan to use the tax rate increase money.
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