Rockwall VATRE Passed and I'm Genuinely Shocked

I’m sitting in my classroom (in another DFW district) looking for jobs. I always thought it would be the kids that pushed me over the edge, but it’s the district and the 10 million things they expect me to do with no resources and not enough time. I’m over it.

I really don't think you understand how things are out here considering last year every adjacent district to us passed propositions to help their school districts. Rockwall maintains it MAGA, Christian Nationalist, anti-tax, anti-public education stance. It was only when the district took the smart route - the scorched earth approach - that the bill passed.

Just the next day - today - my wife told me on Rockwallian (Facebook) that there are already people trying to ban together to bring a lawsuit against the district. I can't even make this shit up. Who would want to work in a school district where the parents are actively lobbying against them?

Yeah, the teachers don’t really care about “more funding” when 90% of it is going towards administration that makes their jobs more difficult anyway.

Thankfully both of my kiddos are top notch students. The drawback is my youngest (13) is very bored even in all honors classes. He gets hundreds in everything. Thankfully, he does programming and other shenanigans in his spare time (aside from the usual Roblox / Fortnite).

I can only imagine how much lower these kids' IQs will sink if they're closer to the bottom 50%.

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This approach is no different than my MSN from Georgetown. Most important classes one time a week, 100+ slide power point decks with recorded lectures to supplement, email the professor if you have questions because you'll never get through a 100 slide deck in a two hour class.

My wife is definitely regretting it. She moved out here years ago (well before MAGA) to be closer to her parents, and the environment doesn't cater to a brilliant, self-made woman like her. We're looking to move at the end of the next school year.

My wife and I have considered moving to Argentina (where she's from) after our kids are all out of school.

$238B for a 4,500 person organization charged to execute 4 mission areas. A lot of money for what?

So, the bill last year would've helped in several other areas including teacher's pay, repairing old and defunct climate control units, to name a couple. My sister-in-law is a teacher in the district, so I'm attuned to what effects it had.

I really can't imagine what would've happened if this proposition didn't pass.

Except the stadium needs major repairs which is actively harming student opportunities across multiple disciplines. It wasn’t about expansion, it was about maintenance.

They learned their lesson from last year. I think in 2024 they assumed people would automatically approve any education spending. There was very little information out there last year.

Paring down to only the VATRE and putting the message out there on positive (funding) and negative (tax impact) was much better compared to the previous version.

I lived in Los Angeles county out in California for a couple years, and I was always blown away by how AMAZING the facilities were for schools there. I couldn’t imagine spending that much tax money on a fancy campus. I brought it up to a kid who had just graduated and he said “well, if you want people to come buy million dollar homes, you’ve gotta build billion dollar schools”.

Obviously the math is hyperbolic there but I think about that every time I vote YES on school funding. It’s an investment. Not just in education to make a better society, it’s literally an investment into my home equity. When I sell someday, I want to attract the wealthiest buyers. And no wealthy home buyer’s going to send their kids to some podunk school with busted roofs.

We pay sooooooo much in property taxes for these schools already. Get rid of bloated administrator pay if anything.

In my neighborhood, many Yes’s and parents in my child’s school, social and sports groups all voting yes.

That probably happened, as well. I think the scare tactics brought people out from the weeds. "Fear" and "loss" are pretty powerful emotions. Unfortunately, I've found you really can't take a positive approach with folks out here. "This will benefit X, Y, and Z." Nope. Gotta do the opposite.

If you saw how people spoke around here, you might understand why your breath of reason wouldn't click with them. 😂 But yes, the impact on taxes was basically negligible.

Unfortunately it also means less funding coming from the state to school districts. One little bump up.. several bump downs. You’re seeing the defunding of public schools in real time.

Lake Pointe is a MAGA church out here. I was just poking fun at it.

Oh, I'm aware 😂

It's very interesting, for sure. Looking at it from a non-emotional lens (definitely difficult), it's really a way to push the middle, lower-middle, and poor classes into poverty or strictly unskilled labor positions boosting the rich who would be able to afford education.

Conseqeuntly, it would only end up increasing homelessness and violent crime in the long run pushing the cycle of blaming people of color for the rise in violent crimes. That would then increase the racial divide in this country even further.

It was a local proposition here to raise taxes minimally while really helping out the school district - especially paying teachers more money. The biggest impact would be had it not passed. That's what drew the voters out of the weeds.

Through the vine I saw it was 25%. I don't know how accurate that is.

Rockwall Election website says there are 88,000 registered voters in the county. 22,695 voted. Source

Um... What?

What? Your comment is gibberish.

I understand it's a country issue. You're preaching to the choir. I just thought I'd bring up something local since elections were held yesterday and, well, it's Rockwall. IYKYK.

What an odd take. Happy you don't have to contribute to schools and emergency services? Thanks for your service, but .... ew.

Rockwall votes overwhelmingly in favor of Greg Abbott and Trump - two people who want to dismantle the foundation of public education. These families want their cake and to eat it, too. They want problems fixed but don't want to fund the efforts. That's just not how it works.

The 9th grade facility was a complete necessity. There were simply too many kids to be able to fit into the high schools to be able to accommodate four full grades (9-12).