This El Paso Times editorial talked about the recent revelation that the El Paso Independent School District is considering closing some schools.
The Times pointed out that while the EPISD student population is approximately the same as it was 25 years ago, the district has added 3.7 million square feet of buildings in that period of time.
The district tells us that changing population concentrations have been the cause of the building spree. That is partially true.
The Times insists that the public must be involved in the planned changes. They wrote “The discussion must start now and must be frank and transparent”.
Frankly
Most of us probably agree with the Times on this. Frankly we would have liked for the issue of tearing down city hall to have had public involvement and been frank and transparent.
The Times did not call for that. We know why.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Despite the substantial growth in El Paso over the past several years, the EPISD population is the same as it was 25 years ago? If that’s true, the number of students in private schools and being schooled home must be significant. It would be interesting to do a financial analysis of the growth in EPISD spending per student, adjusted for inflation and how the dollars are spent. More to the point, I am willing to bet that the administrative staff and costs have grown disproportionately during that time and now consume a much larger portion of the total budget.
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Transparency in public institutions here seems to be the unreachable dream. It threatens too many private agendas. Now, with EPISD in private hands – its board of managers – they can do about anything they want and let us know after the fact, except we have to pay for it. This is taxation without representation, is it not?
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Taxation aside, the board of managers has power and control without any level of accountability to the public. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
If you want to know just how little El Paso taxpayers and voters have to say about it, consider the following statement by State Commissioner Michael Williams, who is himself a political appointee:
“I can leave them [EPISD board of managers] in place for up to two years but that doesn’t mean it has to be two years. I’m not ready to remove them and I’m not ready to say when we will take them out.”
That is a typical political non-statement. Williams used “I” three times. The only thing he made clear is that he and only he will decide what is in the best interest of El Paso. Williams is a typical partisan politician impressed with his own power, which explains why he and Perry named a Perry patron and political wannabee to head the board of managers.
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I disagree! El Paso is very transparent. That is what frustrates me. Real cities at least try to hide their dirty deals. Here they flaunt it.
OK OK, maybe im kidding a little.
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Much of that square footage cited here was to appease the duly elected board members at the time when bonds were being created. Almost every school in the district received a “multi purpose” center, which is essentially about the size of a mini indoor basketball court. Multiply that MPC, which is pretty much the same in each school, by the 50 or so schools that got them…The duly elected board members would not agree to bonds unless there was “something in it for my schools.” Need a new westside elementary school where the growth was taking place? Not unless you build something in the Northeast. Need a fine arts complex at Coronado, where there is always a strong fine arts program? Not unless you build a bigger better one at Bowie. Need to rebuild Mesita because it was crumbling? Not unless you build a baseball complex at Burges. The problem is that the school boards historically are very geocentric. Instead of having a “needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few” mentality, they seem to always have a “What is in it for my side of town?”
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I believe we have 9 or 11 school districts in the El Paso area and it is outside of EPISD where the growth is…I am not to good at math & numbers as I went to Public skool.
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Sorry to see such a nasty and gratuitous comment. I went to public school and don’t have any problem with math. Maybe you should rethink.
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Yes, I went to public schools too — in a time when students got a good education there. I’m continually amazed at public school graduates who cannot make change. If the cash register doesn’t tell them the correct change, they are clueless.
EPISD always needs more money to expand and maintain schools — now schools will be combined and don’t tell me that isn’t expensive. In the meantime, students are far less educated now than 50 years ago. Maybe that’s not entirely the schools’ fault. It’s probably a combination of societal changes along with curriculum changes.
But what gets me is we, the taxpayers, are not getting a return (an educated populace) on our investment (higher and higher school taxes).
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