VOTE NO ON RRISD PROP A
Early Voting Oct. 23-Nov. 3
WHY Round Rock ISD VOTERS ARE SAYING ‘LATER’ TO VATRE
Learn the truth about Prop. A below
‘DARTH VATRE’ IN DISGUISE
A VATRE (pronounced “Vader”) is short for Voter-Approval Tax Ratification Election. Yes, a tax hike! And this particular tax hike is about as helpful for our teachers and students as a pig wearing a Halloween mask. You see, Round Rock ISD administrators control budget allocations, and they could pay higher teacher salaries without increasing taxes — yet they have chosen not to! Meanwhile, they masquerade as a district in need of additional revenue just to get by.
As RRISD Trustee Dr. Mary Bone said while voting against the first step of this VATRE tax increase, school district bureaucrats manipulated the budget to make “teacher pay increases hostage to higher taxes.”
That sounds like a Vader-like movie villain tactic on the part of RRISD! It also sounds like a hog at the trough helping himself to whatever he wants. No wonder folks are calling Prop. A “Darth VATRE!”
A DISTRICT IN NEED OF REFORM
This isn’t about right versus left or new versus old. It’s clear something is drastically wrong within the Round Rock ISD, and the $19 million Prop. A will only make things worse.
Once the shining gem of Central Texas public education, parents are removing kids from RRISD schools in record numbers. Many are saying it’s because of declining academic focus and emphasis on shaky trends such as Social and Emotional Learning. Others have cited safety, deteriorating values, a lack of accountability to parents, and headline stories involving multiple scandals in RRISD leadership. While the population of school-age children and the tax base grows in RRISD, enrollment has decreased 9% (over 4,400 students) since its peak in 2020, and taxes have increased 15% (over $89 million).
UNJUSTIFIED AND NOT ‘EQUITABLE’
Declining enrollment due largely to Round Rock ISD’s mismanagement plus a rising tax base means the district must make Equity Payments (aka. “Robin Hood” recapture payments) in the sum of $77.8 million for the 2023-24 school year to be sent to other districts.
RRISD preaches “Equity” as virtue, but then cries “unfair” when Robin Hood payments must come from their bloated budget. Meanwhile, RRISD deliberately underpays teachers, sets failing academic targets for ethnic groups, prioritizes divisive “social emotional learning” over academics, and drives struggling families and small business out with unaffordable taxes — then sticks us with another bill in the form of Proposition A!
The rate increase is so high it automatically triggered this VATRE election under a 2019 law to protect taxpayers. Does that sound like a tax cut to you?
PUTTING TEACHERS LAST
Prop. A is extorting taxpayers by stating that if it does not pass then teacher pay will be cut. But we know where the real cuts should be made.
The 2018 Gibson Research Group Staffing Evaluation and Analysis study described Round Rock ISD as administration-heavy; Only the Austin ISD has a more bloated administration than RRISD!
Unfortunately, RRISD did nothing to correct overstaffing bloat exposed by the Gibson report, but they did hire more “staff,” not teachers — continuing the trend up to today. Prop. A would only make the glut worse.
VOTE NO ON RRISD PROP A 