While most politicos in Austin sit waiting for the courts' next move on our 2012 electoral maps, forces more basic to our state's functioning (both political and otherwise) are pushing the legal system.
Tonight, the Austin Indpendent School District, on a unanimous vote, joined the fray by teaming up with law firm Thompson & Horton that argues "that the school finance system in its current state constitutes an unconstitutional statewide property tax, and that target revenue provides funding levels to schools that are arbitrary, and thus are an inefficient and unsuitable method for financing public schools."
And that's just the smaller lawsuit - comprised of wealthier districts that don't think they can afford current funding to spread out equally among Texas schools. The Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition, on the other hand, is comprised of over 250 different school districts throughout Texas. That's about one fourth of Texas's independent school districts. And almost a fourth of the Lone Star State's schools are going to court - against Texas.
The major coalition includes local ISDs, too - Pflugerville, Elgin, Smithville, Coupland, Granger, Hutto, Thrall and Taylor ISDs are the other districts from Travis and surrounding counties. And with so much effort behind this suit, noise will surely be made. Already in the Texas Tribune's "Insider Poll,", 60% of respondents said that the school finance lawsuits were "serious" at level 5 on a 1-5 scale (with 5 being the highest.)
One even went to say, "By the time this hits the district court, over half of Texas schools will be involved. The suit also will include parents, small business owners and other taxpayers."
Two Hundred Fifty Plus and Counting.
The main battle at stake, in the larger coalition, was outlined in a press release sent almost a month ago by the Equity Center, a group that represents a large portion of this coalition on matters of school finance equity at the legislature every session:
Because the Legislature has failed to adopt a rational and efficient system that treats all Texas taxpayers and children fairly as required by the Texas Constitution, districts believe now is the time to take legal action.
Given the disparities in student funding and taxpayer equity, these districts have a strong case and their position cannot be ignored.
For example, per student funding across Texas ranges from under $5,000 to over $10,000, even though state accountability standards are applied to all children uniformly.
Dr. Wayne Pierce, Executive Director, explains it this way: "We believe litigation is the only way to ensure taxpayer equity and a quality education for Texas children. We must litigate for a school finance system that makes sense and is fair to all children, taxpayers, and districts."
Before the 82nd Legislature convened in January of 2011, Texas' funding for public education had already become an arbitrary hodge-podge of approaches rather than a coherent system. This hodge-podge, built around a hold-harmless scheme adopted in 2006 called "Target Revenue," resulted in huge differences in yields for similar tax effort that gave property-wealthy districts unconstitutionally greater access to educational dollars. This constitutional inefficiency was compounded in 2011 by SB 1 passed by the 82T Legislature which reduced school funding formulas by $4 billion dollars in addition to other cuts in excess of $1 billion. In FY 2012, SB1 makes across-the-board percentage reductions to districts' regular program funding. These losses in already low-funded districts have a harsher impact than similar Cuts to a much higher funded district. In FY20 13, SB 1 cuts more from districts with Target Revenue, but limits their losses so that they will still have greater resources than the lower wealth districts.
This isn't the first time schools needed to sue the state. In fact, it's a relatively common occurrence, and it's a sad reflection on our state government that litigation is the most effective means towards reasonable policy.
Perhaps this time, with such a force behind multiple lawsuits against the state, the ballot boxes will hear this roar, too.
Edit 10/25 1:25 pm: Turns out I made a significant mistake in the original write-up. AISD did not join the same lawsuit as the Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition. AISD, along with other large and wealthy joined a lawsuit that doesn't make the equity argument, which could potentially mean less money for wealthier districts. Either way - Texas school districts statewide are finding major problems with the school finance system that the legislature passed, no matter how relatively bad their current situation is.
In a widely expected move the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees has voted, unanimously, to move their elections to November. Board members cited the cost savings in holding an election jointly with ACC as well as taking advantage of increased turnout. The change would move not only the 2012 election date, but all future trustee elections to November of even numbered years. Terms for members in districts 2, 3, 5, & 8 will be extended by six months. Representing those districts are Sam Guzmán, Christine Brister, Mark Williams, and Annette LoVoi (at-large).
Board president Mark Williams stated the following in the Statesman.
"This will substantially increase voter turnout and significantly reduce cost for the district," Austin school board President Mark Williams said. "There's benefits in increasing access to voters, and part of a public school district is public involvement."
"If you look at the percentage of voters in May of even numbered years versus November of even numbered years, it's literally like ten percent or so on average for May versus fifty or sixty percent for November. I mean the more people you have involved and informed the better your process is going to be, so it was a very easy decision for me to make," Schneider told KUT News.
The move to November elections will save about $300,000 for the school district next year, while leaving the City of Austin as the sole entity holding and funding a May election to an estimated total of $1.25 million, not including another $500,000 for a June runoff. The current 2012 city budget only calls for spending $791,269 so additional funds are expected to be drawn from one of the city's emergency or reserve funds.
When asked about the increased cost to the City of Austin, councilmember Kathie Tovo, who voted to keep the May election date, stated the following in the Statesman.
"The city has held municipal elections without partners, for example this past spring," Council Member Kathie Tovo said in an interview.
Councilmember Tovo is referring to her own election this past spring, which included a runoff whose cost raised concerns by a number of her campaign's key supporters as well as herself in an interview with KXAN.
The cost of the runoff for taxpayers according to the city, $528,400, or $24 per expected vote.
"It certainly will cost the taxpayers a lot more than many of them would want to spend on a runoff election," Tovo said.
I had an opportunity to ask Councilmember Tovo about the costs during last week's council debate on the matter. She stated that she "never once raised a concern about the cost of having a runoff election." Our remarks begin at the 21:30 mark in the video below the fold.
Close elections both- the ACC candidates tied saw Reiter ahead by 2 votes in Williamson Conuty. In AISD, Barksdale did noticeably better on election day in the first round and if that continues to the runoff she may pull through. Student vote was non-existent. Barksdale cleaned up on the east side but Cowan won big in some of the higher turnout boxes. Turnout was 1.21% in the early vote for AISD and .83% for ACC.
NOTE- As far as I can tell, the ACC results reported by Travis County do include the Williamson numbers, but do not include the Bastrop numbers (which joined ACC in last month's election). It would be pretty wild if this election comes down to being decided by new Bastrop voters who could vote in the runoff by not the first round. They petitioned this spring but will vote to join in November- so no worries.
8:00 PM: In the AISD election, there was 628 more votes cast early in the runoff than in the initial round in May. Conversely, in the ACC election, there was 1,126 fewer votes in the runoff early vote than the initial round.
8:15 PM: Of the people voting in the AISD race, only 34 didn't cast a ballot. Of the people voting in the ACC race, 712 skipped casting a ballot. Since the jurisdictions overlap, it's pretty clear the AISD race drove the turnout.
9:15 PM: With over 80% reporting I'm calling the AISD race for Tamala Barksdale. With 58% reporting in the ACC race, it's a pretty sure bet that Villarreal is the winner.
9:45 PM: All in for AISD. Barksdale pulls down a solid win with the support of Election Day voters. Final turnout is 2.52%. There was 497 more voters in the runoff than the initial election in May.
After having placed first in the AISD Place 9 runoff earlier this month, Tamala Barksdale has announced a series of endorsements headed into the June runoff. Endorsing her campaign are Karen Dulaney-Smith, current AISD Place 9 Trustee, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez, and former opponents, Dianne Mendoza and Cassandra Enoch Brown.
This Thursday, Mayor Leffingwell as well as Councilmembers Martinez and Shade will be hosting a runoff fundraiser for Barksdale at Nuevo Leon Restaurant, 1501 East 6th Street, from 5:30 -7:00 PM. Contributions may be made online or at the door.
There are municipal races scattered across Texas tonight and while we won't be reporting on all of them here, below are some select results from races of interest or that we have covered here previously on Burnt Orange Report. In the Central Texas area I'd turn to the News 8 Austin compilation of all area races for results. Results from the Rio Grande Valley can be found here.
ACC: All precincts reporting.
AISD: All precincts reporting.
NOTE: The display below is formated with the Early Vote % first, and the Total Vote % second where applicable.
Austin Community College Place 5
39.18% | 39.88% Vic Villarreal - RUNOFF 17.96% | 16.80% Davis Jones
24.14% | 24.81% David S. Reiter - RUNOFF 18.72% | 18.50% Fred L. McGhee
Austin Community College Place 6
19.13% | 18.23% Michael Perrine
30.24% | 28.23% Raymond Hartfield
50.64% | 53.53% Guadalupe (Lupe) Sosa - ELECTED
AISD Place 6
29.42% | 23.67% Glen P. Mayes
70.58% | 76.33% Lori Moya - ELECTED
AISD Place 7
46.33% | 47.05% Warren Faulkner
53.67% | 52.95% Robert Ray Schneider
52.13% Tom Musselman - ELECTED 45.94% Walter Moldenhauer
1.93% Richard Bartholomee
Fredericksburg- City Council
29.53% Tim Dooley - ELECTED 28.57% Graham Pearson - ELECTED 23.24% Tommy Segner
9.46% John Detmar
9.20% Scott Jones
Statement from County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir on possible runoff election
Responding to questions from the media and the public about a possible runoff election, County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said that the only races in which a runoff appears possible include:
= Austin Community College Trustee, Place 5
= Austin Community College Trustee, Place 6
= Austin Independent School District, Position 9
= City of Cedar Park Council, Place 6
DeBeauvoir said her office had provided cost estimates to both ACC and AISD for a potential June runoff election. Initial estimates for a runoff involving both ACC and AISD total $496,910, with the share being split proportionately by district size.
ACC estimated cost: $286,044 (additional costs for Williamson County precincts)
AISD estimated cost: $210,866
Total runoff estimate for ACC and AISD: $496,910
Should the City of Cedar Park election result in a runoff, DeBeauvoir said that election would be conducted by Williamson County.
It appears that in the AISD Place 9 runoff, Barksdale has received the endorsements of 1 of the 3 losing candidates as well as the endorsement of the retiring incumbent.
Statesman: Already on Saturday, Barksdale said she had received new endorsements from Enoch Brown, who got 5 percent of the vote, and Dulaney Smith.
It looks like the publicity really helped the All City Musical production of Rent as performances Thursday and Friday night were sold out. I fortunately bought my ticket for Friday night ahead of time and enjoyed a performance from the heart of the high school students from across Austin. You could tell these kids knew this performance was special in so many ways and put great effort into their numbers.
For those who might not be familiar or remember, the All City Musical of the AISD Fine Arts Academy had a $10,000 funding grant pulled by the AISD based on the content of Rent. AISD did not feel it would be appropriate for some of the audiences of Austin. The Fine Arts Academy and McCallum High School made a decision to continue with staging Rent to provide a positive message to the students.
This really disappoints me and it was the front page story on the Statesman today. AISD administration has pulled funding of a high school production of RENT (and for all the reasons you'd typically expect from some backwater school district).
A summer school production of the musical "Rent" will go on, but without $10,000 in assistance from the Austin school district after administrators decided the production might not be well received in all campus communities.
The Austin production is expected to be the first licensed high school production of the musical in Texas, according to a national theater licensing group. The school version of the musical includes scenes involving drug use, HIV, prostitution and homosexuality but is more toned down than the Broadway production.
Students from across the district are involved in the musical, which will be held at McCallum High School in North Austin on Thursday through July 20 - though without all the props, costumes and faculty advisers that were planned before it lost district support.
This is infuriating and while the show will go one (and I'm sure that the missing funds can be raised separately), there are serious questions I want answered as to why the AISD funding got pulled... as if it isn't obvious by this email from John May at AISD as reported by the Statesman.
While Rent may be very well received in some campus communities, it is obvious that this is not at all the case in many others. In planning for a district-wide event, all must be taken into account.
This is freaking Austin. The best response to all this BS is from the student members of the cast themselves, again, reported by the Statesman.
J.P. Ponce, a 16-year-old who plays Angel, a gay man who dies of AIDS in the musical, said many cast members were devastated when they found out the musical might be canceled.
"I felt really upset because my second cousin, who has AIDS, was coming to the show and had been really proud of me," said Ponce, a junior at Bowie High School. "Here we were, putting together a show that's all about love and how we should stick together. How is that not right for some communities? How can that not be suitable for everyone?"
...
Ponce said he and the actor playing his character's boyfriend have a statement of their own to make.
"For the kissing scene, we were just going to do it on the forehead," he said. "But for the last night, we're going to do it all out, just to rub it in the district's face."
This production has 4 showings from July 17th-20th (Thursday-Sunday), during Netroots Nation which is unfortunate for some. You can purchase tickets online here through the AISD summer musical website.
Last night, Thursday, April 03, the Capital City Young Democrats (CCYD) held its endorsement election for the upcoming Austin municipal election on May 10, 2008.
CCYD endorsed the following candidates:
Austin Community College Board of Trustees, Place 1 Tim Mahoney
Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, District 3 Jerry Garcia
Now available online here. You can also check out the News 8 Austin results online. The following are the early votes for selected races.
update1: The first update is now up (pdf). The main things to watch tonight will be if Martinez gained enough votes to avoid a runoff, if Ahardt picked up enough to overcome McGuffee's lead for ACC place 8, and the race between Annette LoVoi and Ed Leo for AISD 8.
update2: So it looks like the final results are just about in. Congratulations to Mayor Will Wynn and Councilman McCracken on their re-elections as well as to new councilmembers Mike Martinez and Sheryl Cole.
James McGuffee prevailed for his ACC seat though incumbent Allen Kaplan defeated Ana Mejia-Dietche and AISD incumbent Schneider prevailed as well. Karen Dulaney Smith crushed her opponents garnering 72% of the vote for an AISD seat while Annette LoVoi edged out Ed Leo by about 2,500 votes to win the unexpired AISD place 8 term.
Austin Props 1 & 2 went down in blazing defeat while 3-7 all passed.
Mayor
Will Wynn 75.84%
Danny Thomas 16.73%
Jennifer Gale 7.42%
City Council Place 2
Eliza May 28.24%
Mike Martinez 49.79%
Wes Benedict 21.97%
City Council Place 5
Kedron Jerome Touvell 9.78%
Mark Hopkins 14.73%
Brewster McCracken 69.44%
Colin Kalmbacher 6.05%
City Council Place 6
DeWayne W. Lofton 9.77%
Sheryl Cole 60.68%
Darrell Pierce 29.55%
Prop 1: Open Government
Yes 25.43%
No 74.57%
Prop 2: Save Our Springs
Yes 32.91%
No 67.09%
Prop 6: Health Care / Domestic Partners
Yes 67.96%
No 32.04%
