[matula]

The problem with the AISD bonds was the school district getting cocky and assuming they could ANYTHING through. There were inconsistencies and vagueness throughout the proposals, and I think voters are finally getting tired of AISD's "just throw money at the problem" attitude, with no real plans for making low-performing schools better.

IMHO, if we want to fix our education system, we need to cut the ties between funding and property values. Also, Democrats in office should probably get over the hard-line "no vouchers" position. With vouchers, they could also increase schools' funding to give them a better chance at competing. Of course, Republicans won't allow for the increased funding or "robin hood" funding. So yeah... we're screwed.

[jbooth]

The problem with vouchers is that they effectively de-fund public schools in the way they're implemented. Private schools will take the best students, hurting the school's funding next year and leaving them with a per-capita more expensive student base. Plus, the private schools create other burdens on the town without paying for them (parking, bussing, policing, etc).

Maybe democrats should be a little less hardline but just expanding vouchers willy-nilly won't fix anything about the opportunity gap facing kids today.