I’ve been hearing rumblings that the Keller ISD is going to come back at us soon with another bond package.  It’s getting really tiresome.  After getting their dream package of $155 million rejected, they “pared” it down to only $99.75 million.  That bond passed.  I’m eagerly awaiting the release of information on the next bite at the apple.  Let’s hope they’ve come to their senses and don’t try any stupidity like putting artificial turf in this one.

Anyhow, I suppose it could be worse.  Frisco ISD is proposing a new bond package that could go as high as $1.2 billion (yes, that’s BILLION).

Voters in this swiftly growing city could be asked to endorse a school bond package as large as $1.2 billion in May, an unprecedented amount for suburban taxpayers in Texas.

With an average of 20 new students arriving every school day, a district committee is considering proposals, stretching from $600 million to $1.2 billion, to finance a massive building program for families lured to this Collin County suburb.

The largest proposal is more than twice the size of the district’s last record-breaking $478 million plan three years ago. It tops every plan ever put before voters in the biggest cities across Texas except for a $1.37 billion package approved in the Dallas school district in 2002, records show.

Dallas has roughly 1.2 million residents. Frisco, formerly a small farming community and now the fastest-growing district in the state, is home to slightly more than 80,000 people who would be asked to shoulder what could be several hundred dollars a year apiece in additional taxes.

Cobblers!  That’s a lot of money.  And it’s on top of $478 million from three years ago.  I’d be forming a taxpayer revolt and perhaps a tar-and-feather party if I had to suddenly pony up that much money in taxes.  Especially since I don’t have any kids. 

It’s really time to start considering having the users pay for the services they use.  I know I’ll get labelled as a cold-hearted bastard who hates children, but I’m past caring about that touchy-feel nonsense.  A user-pays system would put the burden squarely where it belongs, which is on those who caused the problem in the first place. 

<whine mode=“socialist”>
   But what about the poor?  How will they pay for school?
</whine>

My first thought is that the bastards ought not to be having them if they can’t pay for them, but if you want to be all share-and-share-alike, then spread the burden across the user base.  But leave me the hell out of it.

This system would also benefit those who homeschool or who use private schools.  These people are effectively double-taxed in that they have to pay for a service they don’t use and still find the resources for educating their children outside of the system.