What the 2015 bond is & is not

The more I learn about the Dallas ISD bond proposal, the more uncomfortable I become with it.  The process and final product are very different than the last bond in 2008.  What this bond is not:

• This is not a bond whose priority is to bring the facility experience for all students up to an acceptable level (a goal of the 2008 bond.)  
• This is not a bond that prioritizes fixing what we already have (it does not align with the district-wide Facility Condition Index report done by the Parsons engineering firm in 2013).  
• This is not a bond that had any meaningful input in the planning process from community groups that I can find - or for that matter, really any group outside the Administration.  It looks like the Future Facilities Task Force got 100% of their info from the administration, and community meetings didn't start happening until the Administration was done with the plan.  (No minutes were kept for the FFTF, and the committee never voted on the plan that was presented to the Board in June.)

So if that is what the bond is not... what IS the bond?

This bond is a check for $1.7B handed to DISD with no strings attached other than what the state requires for bonds.

• The list of new schools and improvements is marked Proposed and is 100% subject to change.  
• The Board has not voted on any plan associated with the bond.

If you think handing DISD a check with no strings attached is a good idea, then by all means vote for the bond.  But if you don't, then vote NO.  Tell them to do it right and bring it back in May!

(And about that "it will not raise our taxes" claim... there are strings attached to that one.  More on that later...)