HOUSTON – It’s called Recapture, and it’s the formula used by the state to provide what is considered “fair” funding for school districts.
The question faced by Harris County voters is whether to authorize HISD to write a check to the state -- made up of property taxes for $77 million -- or allow certain commercial properties to be detached from HISD rolls to be taxed on behalf of the Aldine School District.
Jolanda Jones is the HISD Trustee representing District IV and said the only smart vote is "no" against Proposition 1. Jones said district officials she has spoken with regret not detaching property.
“A hundred percent of the schools that testified (at a state conference) said that if they had to do it over again they would have voted to detach,” she said. “We’re speculating about what’s happening in HISD, but we know what’s happened with all those other districts. ”
Scott Hochberg is an education policy consultant and represented Southwest Houston for 20 years as a state representative. He was on the education committee for all 20 years and said vote "yes" and keep the property.
”What’s on the ballot is we either write a check or we give up that property and if we give up that property,” he said. “There’s no provision in law to ever get it back.”
Tune in to watch the very active and informative conversation between two experts that may help you decide how you will vote on a very important issue.
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Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., is the chancellor of Lone Star College, and said a bill moving out of a state Senate committee makes it more likely that Lone Star will be able to provide bachelor of science degrees for nurses, something very much needed.
“Lone Star is the largest producer of LVN’s in the country and now the hospitals are telling us they would like to have more BSNs,” Head said. “That’s the issue and there’s not enough BSNs coming out into the workforce.”
“Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall,” airs Sunday at 10 a.m. right after “Meet the Press,” on KPRC Channel 2.
• Scott Hochberg, former state representative/education consultant, www.scotthochberg.com
• Jolanda Jones, HISD trustee District IV, 713-556-6121, jjones57@houstonisd.org
Twitter: @HoustonISD @jolandaJ4hisd @JonesJolanda
• Stephen C. Head, Ph.D. Chancellor, Lone Star College, 832-813-6728, http://www.lonestar.edu/chancellor.htm
Twitter: @LoneStarCollege