No, It's Really Not OK to Vote 'No'

There's obviously a small campaign in Denton to vote against the upcoming bond election.  I haven't seen too many signs around town to encourage voting no, but a couple of weeks ago while driving down Sherman, I did see some guy standing in a black "ninja" body suit waving a sign saying to vote no.  It had a lot of verbiage that was much too small to read at 35MPH, much less the 40-50 most folks drive along that stretch of road.

I've seen plenty of signs to promote voting for the bonds. Obviously there's some funding behind that.  I'm sure that the fact that Denton ISD is one of the largest employers in the city makes sense. I'm sure there's other interests as well.  One of the biggest of these is the fact that people still care about public education....I hope.

In slipping into the new Denton County election offices this week to vote early, I noticed a nice little sign atop an angle steel fence post pounded into the ground. It said "It's OK to vote 'NO.'"  Again, with lots of tiny words and graphs.

Turns out, it seems we have a little money trickling into the community from Accountability First, a PAC associated with UT Regent Wallace Hall.  Seems they want to spend outside money in Denton and other districts throughout Texas defeating bond initiatives.  Channel 8 recently reported on their efforts in Lovejoy.

It's not OK to vote NO.

It's only OK to vote NO if you don't care about the future of public education. It's only OK to vote NO if you want to see educational infrastructure in one of the fastest growing counties in the country lag behind. It's only OK if you think because you don't have kids in public schools, the future of your community doesn't depend on the education of the entire community. It's only OK if you don't give a rat's patoot about the legacy of Mirabeau B. Freakin' Lamar!

Denton is growing fast. Just try driving down the "new" 288, and you'll see. We cannot finance new facilities and improvements out of our yearly budget. That's just not how things are done, particularly when growth is like it is here. We cannot claim that these aren't necessary, either. Schools are already overcrowded, and are expected to get worse. Declining schools is a symptom of a community that does not care and is not thriving. I don't believe Denton suffers from either of these.