Local Property Taxes Carry More of the Load

School districts made a big pitch during the recent Texas legislative session for more state funding for public schools. The pitch's argument often went something like this: if homeowners don't like their property taxes always going up, it's because the amount the state chips in is always going down.

"More and more of the burden for financing our schools is ending up on the backs of our local taxpayers," said Richardson ISD School Board President Justin Bono. "They're finding other priorities for it. We wish and try to press that public education should be a priority." Bono says the state used to provide 50 percent of a district's funding just less than 10 years ago. By next year, the state's funding will only account for a mere 20 percent of the district's revenue.

Source: Fox 4 News.

On its face, that sounds like it should be an effective argument. Effective, meaning persuasive to reasonable politicians in Austin, who might not have been aware that more and more funding for schools is coming from local property taxes. Then I read something in Vox that opened my eyes.

OTBR: Prairie Dog in Boulder

Latitude: N 40° 02.328
Longitude: W 105° 14.298

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously (not actually) last month that are "off the blue roads".

Single Member Districts are not the Way to Diversity

Single member districts are not the way to diversity. Maybe elsewhere, with different geography and demographics, but not in the Richardson ISD, anyway. Carol Toler of the Lake Highlands Advocate has been asking RISD trustees (current and former) about RISD adopting single member districts. Toler first raised the issue in an interview with new RISD board president Justin Bono. Bono responded reasonably in my opinion:

I don’t know that single member districts would accomplish what proponents want or make a board more effective, just given how our district is laid out. Our board would welcome a more diverse pool of candidates and colleagues, and we’re focused on getting more diversity on strategic planning committees, diversity of backgrounds and geography as well, so that there is a greater pool of potential board candidates. Ultimately, it has to be the right time for any candidate to step into board service.

Source: Lake Highlands Advocate.

Repeat Tweets: Vote First. Hearings Later

Repeat tweets from August, 2017:

• Aug 1 2017: RT @ericawerner: "Cornyn on the floor acknowledging any path forward on health care will have to be bipartisan."
  That's our Texas Senator acknowledging what should have been obvious, what was the right thing to do, all along. What a waste.
• Aug 1 2017: RT @TopherSpiro: "NEWS: Bipartisan hearings to draft stabilization legislation. Testimony from patients, Governors, and experts."
  Vote first. Hearings later. Not the way I remember "How a Bill Becomes a Law" but better late than never.
• Aug 2 2017: The Girl on the Train (2016): Psychological mystery borrows heavily from Rear Window and Gaslight. Well-crafted if maybe too predictable. B-
• Aug 3 2017: RT @costareports: "Secret Service vacates Trump Tower command post in lease dispute with president's company."
  Because of course.
• Aug 4 2017: Trump heads govt (Secret Service). Trump owns Trump Tower. But great negotiator can't get a lease done between 2?
• Aug 4 2017: "Russell Barlow, Jr Commits to TCU Hoops."
  It's a great time to be a Ram. @BerknerBB #txhshoops

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Review: Infinite Jest

Amazon

From Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace:

A woman at U. Cal-Irvine had earned tenure with an essay arguing that the reason-versus-no-reason debate about what was unentertaining in Himself's work illuminated the central conundra of millennial après-garde film, most of which, in the teleputer age of home-only entertainment, involved the question why so much aesthetically ambitious film was so boring and why so much shitty reductive commercial entertainment was so much fun. The essay was turgid to the point of being unreadable, besides using reference as a verb and pluralizing conundrum as conundra."

I finished "Infinite Jest." The novel that sold a million copies since publication twenty years ago; the novel that's on almost every list of best novels of the twentieth century; the thousand-page novel that I bet hardly anyone ever actually finishes reading; the novel whose sentences go on even longer than this sentence of mine; you know, that novel. I finished it. I finished it. I deserve some recognition for that. Or punishment. I don't know which.

POTD: Ball Court of Coba

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the ancient Mayan city of Coba on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It shows the ball court. The object of the game was to maneuver a ball, without using your hands, through the stone hoop attached to the side wall of the court. The rules of the game are in dispute (kind of like American football) but that doesn't stop archaeologists from deducing that the losers of the game (or sometimes the winners) were ritually sacrificed (kind of like American politics).

Sand Storm (2016)

IMDB

Sand Storm (2016): Girl meets boy. Dad objects and arranges a different marriage. Then dad brings home a second wife. Age-old story. B+

POTD: Abandoned City of Coba

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the ancient Mayan city of Coba on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It was a huge city but the jungle has mostly reclaimed it.

Bonus photos after the jump.

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From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Lo and Behold (2016)

IMDB

Lo and Behold (2016): History & future of the Internet. Some topics are promising (AI), some scary (solar flares), some badly misjudged. C+

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

IMDB

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016): War in Iraq. Pro football in Dallas. A study of PTSD. Flat acting. Clichéd characters. Watchable. C+

As is usually the case, the movie is not as good as the book, which was reviewed here in 2013.

Magnet Schools vs Neighborhood Schools

Five years ago, I blogged about magnet schools — their purpose and their effect. I think it holds up well, in that I had questions about the purpose and effect of magnet schools in Richardson that I couldn't answer then and I still can't answer today. I don't believe there has been adequate public discussion. It's time.

POTD: D'Amico

From 2017 01 29 Caribbean Cruise

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Galveston Bay, the entrance to the busy Houston Ship Channel, ranked first in the United States in foreign waterborne tonnage; first in U.S. imports; and first in U.S. export tonnage.

Local, State, Nation: Same Story

Recently, I posted a graph showing Richardson ISD schools' academic ranking plotted against the percentage of students they have on the free and reduced lunch program. As I expected it showed a correlation — as socio-economic status drops, so too does academic ranking.

From SchoolDigger.com

Today I want to look at state and national data.

Logan Lucky (2017)

IMDB

Logan Lucky (2017): Redneck Oceans 11, where NASCAR not Vegas is the target. Decent fun if you bring enough suspension of disbelief. B-

Local Evidence that Demography is Destiny

When looking at Schooldigger.com school performance numbers, I fell back on a story of demographics to explain why the Richardson ISD has some of the highest performing schools in the state *and* some of the lowest performing. Same school district. Same policies. Same curriculum. Same central administration. But widely differing results. Different demographics, I said.

I was confident my story wasn't a fairy tale, but I didn't bother backing it up with more than just a couple of quick data points. I believe that it's a good personal habit to challenge one's own preconceptions now and then. Because sometimes I'm wrong. (I know. Hard to believe.) So I did my homework.

Transforming Fashion

It's the last weekend to catch the Dallas Museum of Art's exhibit Tranforming Fashion featuring designs by Iris van Herpen. These dresses are bold, sure, but I just can't see them "transforming fashion." No woman is going to be wearing anything that looks like any of these dresses. Sci-fi aliens, on the other hand, maybe. High fashion will probably come to use the technology van Herpen used, like 3-D printing, but it will be put to more practical styles than seen here. It's still great fun.

Coincidentally, Season 16 of Project Runway premiered this week. I have to admit, it's my guilty pleasure. I haven't picked a favorite this season yet, but I'm forever on Team Mondo.

A bonus photo is after the jump.

Oh, Hello on Broadway (2017)

IMDB

Oh, Hello on Broadway (2017): Comic duo plays two old NY friends. Mix of skits and standup. Relentlessly paced, eventually tiresome. C-

The Incredible Jessica James (2017)

IMDB

The Incredible Jessica James (2017): Aspiring playwright after a breakup. Works with kids. She's complicated. Light, fun, believable. B-

War Machine (2017)

IMDB

War Machine (2017): Afghanistan war. Mash of history, satire, tragedy. Brad Pitt is miscast. Mannerisms more Forrest Gump than general. B-

Richardson's Budget - Black or Red?

It's August and that means it's time for Richardson budget roulette. Will the proposed city budget be balanced? You'd think that would be a simple question. Isn't the city required by law to have a balanced budget? Well, yes, but it all depends on the meaning of "balanced".

Last year when I looked at this question, I concluded that the city's 2016-2017 budget was indeed balanced and didn't require use of that sneaky asterisk ("plus reserved fund balance and other financing sources").

After the jump, reviewing that conclusion and looking ahead at 2017-2018.

The Big Sick (2017)

IMDB

The Big Sick (2017): Mixed-culture romcom. Tension between him, her and their families. Laughs, tears, and straight drama. Great acting. B+