Midland School Bond vs Tim Dunn
How one Texas Oligarch is holding back progress in his hometown
Most of us are not paying attention to what’s going on in Midland, Texas. Public Education is on the ballot in the form of a public school bond and Tim Dunn, the Texas Oligarch is doing everything in his power to stop the bond from passing. Last weekend Tim Dunn wrote an Op-Ed in the Midland newspaper about how Midland deserves Transparency and facts from MISD, where he lies about how the bond is a property tax increase (it’s not) and he complains about “property taxes being too high.”
But let’s talk about the real reason that Tim Dunn does not want the Midland ISD Bond to pass. He has invested millions in Vouchers/School Choice passing in Texas. He is a founder of Midland Classical Academy, a Christian private school in Midland, and currently sits on the board. He has a lot to gain from Texas public schools failing. He has stopped bonds from passing in Midland before. Last time bonds didn’t pass by less than 30 votes. But Tim Dunn has been actively working against public education since 2006 when he presented a proposal to the Texas Tax Reform Commission showing how school property taxes could be eliminated.
Now let’s rewind a bit, Tim Dunn is a donor or sits on the board of Empower Texans, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Defend Texas Liberty PAC. Remember Defend Texas Liberty PAC got caught having meetings with Nick Fuentes, a well-known Nazi. And a few days after that happened Tim Dunn wrote an Op-Ed to take down Midland ISD Bond.
Note that Midland ISD is 65.89% Hispanic, 6.86% African American, and 2.42% Asian. If you think this is about Racism and Christian Nationalism it is.
Texas has red Republican areas such as Prosper, Texas that are passing bonds and building state-of-the-art schools. But what they don’t have in Prosper is Tim Dunn stopping progress.
Midland ISD has aging schools.
Midland HS is 95 years old
Legacy HS is 62 years old
19 schools are over 62 years old
6 schools between 42-62
12 schools under 42 years old
A lot has changed in the last 40- 95 years. Students deserve to go to school in modern classrooms that are made for today’s learning as well as schools that are not falling apart. But also 40% of the schools in Midland are over capacity with higher than expected growth and they expect to be 62% over capacity by 2033. They are gaining over 400 new students per year.
Today’s article in the Texas Tribune about how one campus in Conroe, Texas has 22 portable classrooms reminded me how Midland ISD currently has 115 portables. If this bond doesn’t pass Midland ISD expects to have 245 or more portables by 2033. A few years ago before we passed a bond in Austin my kid’s school had so many portables that they had to get rid of the track field so they could fit them all. The new school in my neighborhood has lifted the entire neighborhood. It is no longer an eyesore but a source of community pride. Midland deserves the same, to have community pride in its newly upgraded schools and facilities.
So what’s the deal with Taxes? In 2019 the State of Texas passed legislation requiring the ballots for all school bond elections to say “This is a property tax increase.” They did this on purpose because it makes it harder to improve public schools and gives Republican legislators more leverage to say they are against taxes. Yes, they meant it to confuse voters.
But this is how it really works. See the slides here.
There is no increase to the overall tax rate.
If other school districts like Proper ISD are passing bonds, so can Midland. If you want to see where the I&S Tax Rate is after passing bonds look at this chart. Midland ISD is at the lower end of the tax rate.
No one loves their public schools quite like West Texans love their public schools. This is why Midlanders need to vote for this school bond. Don’t let Midland hold Oligarchs like Tim Dunn to a higher regard than their neighbors. Support your local communities, y’all deserve nice schools like those in other areas of Texas. And right now Tim Dunn is the only reason you cannot have nice things.
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