Group members argue that endorsing a $4.4 billion bond is a sad misjudgment by the business leadership group given they say that it will saddle the district with so much debt that it would be 2042 before the district could even think about calling for another bond issue. The bond measure will be on the November ballot.
Also at issue is a strong pushback against allowing Superintendent Mike Miles and a state-appointed board that much power over an immense amount of money. Recently the executive committees of the Harris County Democratic and Republican parties have said they oppose this bond — for different reasons — and critics hope this will cause the GHP to reconsider its stance. The Houston Press asked HISD for a statement responding to the executive committees' decisions and have no heard back from them.
For their parts, both the GHP and Miles and his administration argue that the bond issue addresses crucial campus needs that have been pushed aside for years. The district has repeatedly pointed out that there will be no increase in tax rates as a result of the bond. However, as pointed out by the community group Community Voices in Education, HISD's own bond financials show that with interest the total cost of the bond to taxpayers will be almost $9 billion over the next 30 years.
While group members hoped to be allowed up to the GHP offices on Avenida de las Americas, they were stopped in the lobby. No GHP representative came out to meet with them, so they held up a banner, delivered their letters (in all 2,000 letters have been sent to GHP, group members say) to the front desk and listened to a short speech from Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of CVPE. They were allowed to remain in the lobby for about 30 minutes before a security guard told them their time was up.
"We wanted to go up the stairs and present the letters to a representative of the Greater Houston Partnership," Kravetz said. "This is a bunch of calm, respectful parents who've never gotten in trouble for anything who came to deliver 2,000 letters.
"We want to thank [GHP] for their service to our city and we want them to recognize that we love Houston too. And we want a better bond. Our kids deserve a better bond. We don't want a school district where kids aren't allowed to read books until they go to college. We don't want a school district where kids do powerpoint in kinder. We don't want a bond where the projected costs are inflated in some schools.
" And we don't want a bond where they're going to spend tens of millions building fencing around schools that they're going to close," Kravetz said, adding: "Mike Miles has shown that he takes taxpayers' good dollars that are meant for public education and he uses them and then he wastes them."
More than 2,000 letters have been sent to the Greater Houston Partnership.
Photo by Margaret Downing
"I believe this is a non-partisan issue. It's a waste of money and it's not in the best interests of the children and the city," she said. "If we don't support our kids properly then the city is not going to thrive."
Describing herself as a supporter of public schools, Houlihan said she hopes to keep her children in public schools . "But I will not sacrifice their academic future if they continue to progress in this way. " She said she and her husband, who works in the oil and gas industry, had discussed moving elsewhere. And that they aren't the only HISD parents having that discussion.
"Which would be a real shame for Houston," she said.
Jessie Dugan, the parent of 4-year-old twins who'll be in kindergarten next year, is concerned about what she says are declining special ed services in the district. "My son has been diagnosed with autism," she said. "The complete gut of the special ed department including autism services which teaches teachers how to deal with autistic kids which by the way is being diagnosed more and more. Under the takeover the [special ed] department has been completely gutted despite public outcry, despite teacher concerns. ."
"I was hoping that the Greater Houston Partnership [would reconsider its endorsement] because of the amount of community here and the amount of letters we brought from the community, how this has become a bipartisan effort," Dugan said. "Many civil rights groups have come on board opposing the bond. There is a great community support. We've all come together to support this. It's a shame to me that our business leaders will not heed our request. "
