Bells and Whistles at NISD Sports Complexes

“Trustee Corinne Saldaña said the district needs to ‘get with the program’ and catch up with technology at other districts.”

But how affordable is it? That should be the main question.  That was our initial takeaway from an Express-News report on the NISD plan to spend $4.5 million on “fancy” new scoreboards at Gustafson and Farris stadiums.

(Full disclosure: our Editor / Policy Director Chris Baecker is the VP of Equipment for NISD’s Earl Warren High School band/colorguard.  And, our newest Executive Board member Jarrett Lipman was Band Director at NEISD’s Claudia Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson High School for 15 years)

At the end of the day, homeowners are being taxed, against their will, to pay for this, and not all of them have students in these schools. Some of those that do are not in athletics. If public education were financed in a more equitable fashion, like via consumption taxes, this would be less of an issue.

At roughly $20-25 per property tax payer in the district, this is a classic example of concentrated benefits vs. dispersed costs. As usual in a case like this, we stand up for those involuntarily incurring some of those costs.