SUNNYVALE, Texas — There are a whopping 89 different school bond proposals on the May ballot across the state of Texas totaling more than $12 billion.
Education consultant Doug Williams said the bonds are all driven by growth, primarily the expansion of mid-sized districts, those with 5,000-20,000 students in the suburbs, which he said are seeing growth of 8-12% annually.
“I talked to one superintendent who was in a school district of about 8,000 students when the year began. By the end of the year, he had 9,000 students enrolled. They had a thousand students enroll during the school year itself,” Williams told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Doug Williams was the longtime superintendent of Sunnyvale ISD before joining the Texas Association of School Administrators and becoming an education consultant.
He said the uncertainty over school funding in the state legislature is a small reason why so many bonds are hitting the ballot at once, but not the primary one.
While state lawmakers haven’t increased the basic allotment, or the amount of money the state gives each district per student based on attendance, since 2019, inflation has raised the cost of everything.
Williams used school buses as an example of the problems facing school districts. He said a school bus costs between $90,000 and $95,000 in 2019. In 2025, districts have to budget $150,000 for a new bus.
The bonds would be used for capital projects, such as building new schools and beefing up infrastructure.
But municipal elections have notoriously low voter turnout, and many issues fail because of that, so we asked Williams what’s on the line if the bonds don’t pass.
“You have classrooms themselves that are overcrowded. Classrooms that were designed for 20 – 22 kids now have to have 26 to 28 kids, not an ideal educational setting whatsoever,” argued Williams. “Or, they begin to put portable classrooms in front of their buildings, behind their buildings. And that’s a safety risk. It really is.”