Dallas ISD enrollment is down by 15,000 students from its lowered projections as school starts its second week. This is roughly ten percent of the entire school population compared to the spring.
Texas school funding is largely based on how many students attend daily with additional funding factors for Special Education and English as a Second Language students. Dallas ISD operates with a $1.64B annual budget.
In addition to the enrollment issues, Dallas ISD officials admitted nearly ten percent of their student population who are enrolled do not have a district-issued electronic laptop or tablet despite mandatory online learning and a Title I population of nearly 90% of all students.
Despite these enrollment issues, Dallas ISD is moving forward with their MAP testing program. MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress.
Dallas ISD Enrollment
Dallas ISD enrollment has been dropping by 1000 – 2000 students per year since a high of 160,000 students in the school year ending in 2015.
The lower enrollment numbers means the district may not have the revenue needed to support the $3.7B Bond 2020 package. Lower enrollment numbers on top of an auditor scandal which has still gone unanswered may leave Dallas ISD’s Bond 2020 program in a precarious position financially.
Defund Dallas may be the new cry against Defund DPD. Mayor Eric Johnson has recently stirred up controversy for trying to cut government salaries. It all started on September 1st when the mayor posted a tweet highlighting the discrepancy of salaries of Dallas among other government salaries.
Apparently the Dallas City Manager, T.C Broadnax, makes more than the President of the United States. Which is certainly odd, considering the wide gap in responsibility between the two jobs. As well as the fact that even the top 10% of City Managers earn significantly less than what T.C Broadnax is currently earning (according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019)
Should this be the case? Is the wage worth the work? Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t think so. In fact, the mayor himself wrote an opinion piece on The Dallas Morning News defending his budget amendment.
In it he states his proposal to decrease the salary of some Dallas government officials amidst the pandemic to make room for more services and lower taxes.
Mayor Eric Johnson’s Defund Dallas Program
The budget amendment in a nutshell cuts 10% off the salary of anyone who makes more than $60,000 annually (including the mayor himself who makes $80,000). This does not include anyone working for emergency services.
Cuts made from the salaries are to help fund more services such as better infrastructure (better roads and streetlights), better policing/ public safety, and lower property taxes.
Unfortunately there is no specifics as to what he means by better policing. Nor if the lower property taxes will be a main focus point or simply an extra treat in case there is left over funds. More details will be unveiled once he formally proposes the budget amendment on the 23rd.
Public Perception
When the straw vote was conducted not a single council member voted on even discussinga cut to salaries. Some people agreed with the mayor and where disappointed by the council. Some said the mayor should have also proposed to cut salaries from the Dallas police, and other cuts in general. Others made fun of the mayor for leaving after the straw vote. And a handful questioned the validity of his bloated bureaucracy claim.
As is with government in general, ineffectiveness and useless spending often persevere. Seeing as how the Dallas council has voted in the past its unlikely that the budget amendment will go through despite the COVID-19 struggle and mayor Eric Johnson’s attempts.
“If this is not the time … to trim the top 10% of salaries at the city of Dallas … then there will never be a time,” -Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson
Next Generation Action Network is seeking a Seventy-seven million dollar decrease in the Dallas Police budget per two separate persons with knowledge of the situation.
Defund DPD has been a rallying cry since the George Floyd death with several members of city council vocally supporting fewer dollars headed to DPD. At yesterday’s meeting of Dallas City Council it appeared there were enough votes to move $7M in overtime from the Dallas Police budget.
Mayor Eric Johnson has tweeted that more than 500 people have emailed City Council about defunding police during the violent crime spike. It is unclear how the Dallas Budget will end up with members of Dallas City Council openly attacking one another in meetings and on social media.
Defund DPD 2.0 – Reaction to Alexander Arrest?
One source who reported NGAN may be seeking this level of funding change said it may be related to the arrest this past weekend of Dominique Alexander.
Neither Next Generation Action Network nor Mayor Johnson has responded to an email for comment.
Defund DPD looks like it is becoming an election issue afterall.
Several members of Dallas City Council, including Adam Baladua and Chad West, are circulating the graphic below showing the reallocation of Dallas Police overtime to other focus areas. The argument they make is that crime prevention dollars are better spent than crime response.
It is not clear how some of these measures are anything except for pet projects in the city. Bike infrastructure and new solar panels have not been linked towards crime prevention in any way and arts funding, useful to the community at large, has little to nothing to do with crime prevention either.
One recent social media post noted it appears some members of city council are trying to balance the budget deficit on the backs of cops after the city council voted to waste millions on Visit Dallas earlier this summer.
Another poster noted that city council knows overtime is hard to budget for and with COVID19 and ongoing George Floyd protests these dollars are being used more quickly than usual.
Defund DPD – Not Really
One issue that is being raised very lightly is the total budget cut from the police force. Despite multiple city council members saying their budget priority was to Defund DPD in June the current reallocation argument amounts to only 0.8%. Where is the real ‘Defund’ movement and will these same members of city council continue to buy armored vehicles for the police as they did earlier this year.
Reneé Hall resigns from Dallas Police effective November 10, 2020. Hall’s tenure has been marred by an explosion in Dallas crime over the past two years that is breaking a decades’ old record for violent crime.
Hall has also pushed back against city council critics who want to defund the police budget.
Carter Bloodcare denied two Spanish speakers the ability to donate earlier this week per multiple witnesses. The two potential donors had made an appointment for earlier this week in Spanish, but upon arrival at the Dallas donor center were told they would not be accomodated.
On a regular basis Carter Bloodcare reminds the public that the blood supply is inadequate for ongoing needs while they sell donated blood products to hospitals throughout the region.
We asked Carter Bloodcare about these issues more than twenty-four hours ago. They have not responded to a request for comment other than it is accurate two donors were denied the ability to donate without being screened.
Three federal laws require that providers who receive federal funds provide oral interpreters and written translated materials to Limited English Proficiency and Deaf and Hard of Hearing patients. Those laws include Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Many systems including nonprofits will use language lines which are telephone systems where a qualified translator can provide medical translation for hundreds of languages between medical staff and patient.
In addition to the above Newly adopted changes to Section 1557 of the ACA in 2016 brought about two key changes.
First, providers must now use qualified medical interpreters when treating LEP and Deaf and HOH patients.
Second, LEP patients, for the first time, were granted the right to sue providers for language access violations. It was not clear if the Spanish speaking donors had sought counsel.
Eric Johnson was a Missing Mayor at yesterday’s budget markup after approximately 1:30 PM when Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano took over the gavel and Eric Johnson was nowhere to be found.
Dallas City Council was to take up eighty-four budget amendments and did so in many cases without the Mayor. Mayor Johnson left proceedings when his amendments were defeated.
The city currently has a $3.8B budget with numerous holes given the loss of tax revenue from COVID19. During that time the City Council nearly unaimously gave Visit Dallas a new five year contract despite no evidence of actually succeeding in bringing convention or visitors to Dallas and a long history of marketing suburban hotels and events.
Missing Mayor – Again
Eric Johnson’s tenures as Mayor and as a State Representative have been marred by a frequent absenteeism. He was named to Pepperdine University’s Board of Regents further fueling speculation about his focus on Dallas.
Wick Allison, birth name Lodowick Brodie Cobb Allison (born March 17, 1948), was a Dallas, Texan magazine publisher and author. He was owner of Dallas’ D Magazine, a monthly magazine covering Dallas-Fort Worth, which he co-founded in 1974. He was also principal owner of People Newspapers, which he purchased in 2003.
Allison was born in Dallas, Texas, and is a sixth-generation Texan. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971. He served as editor of the student humor magazine The Texas Ranger and earned a degree in American Studies. Upon graduation, he served in The White House on the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest.
In 1983, he married the former Christine Peterson and has four daughters.
Wick Allison And D Magazine
Allison co-founded D Magazine — a monthly magazine covering Dallas — in 1974. In 1985, Allison was asked by William F. Buckley, Jr. to join the board of directors of the National Review, and in 1980 he became its publisher, succeeding William A. Rusher.
In February 2013, Allison launched “D: The Broadcast,” a two-hour daily morning talk show, on local Dallas independent station KTXD, but the magazine ended its affiliation with the show in August of the same year.
He also serves as president of the non-profit American Ideas Institute, publisher of The American Conservative.
The Texas Education Agency appears to be ready to take over Desoto Independent School District’s due to multiple questions of financial problems.
The school board accepted Dr. D’Andre Weaver’s resignation during an emergency meeting Sunday night. The reason for his resignation was not made public.
Weaver’s term started with investigations into unethical practices including more than $300,000 in travel expenses. Former board member Jerry Hall said the school board refused to do anything about inappropriate spending.
The 18-page TEA report indicates former administration employees could face a criminal investigation for fifty fraudulent credit card purchases to fictitious vendors. His efforts met resistance from some board members who had the ultimate say over him.
Texas Education Agency Next Steps
The TEA is now recommending the troubled district be taken out of the hands of the divided school board. The Desoto ISD Board of Trustees accepted Weaver’s resignation after ninety minutes in executive session.
The Desoto ISD example may be a warning of things to come given Dallas’ own sudden departures. The auditor scandal has still not been explained and may effect the bond vote. There have also been recent accusations that Dallas ISD was trying to box out minority contractors – first inferred by Trustee Maxie Johnson and then seconded by Next Generation Action Network’s Dominique Alexander.
A Deep Ellum fire broke out early Saturday morning at Pecan Lodge. Dallas Fire Rescue is currently investigating the cause of the fire.
Pecan Lodge had a similar early morning fire in 2016 due to what was described as a grease choked smokestack.
Pecan Lodge opened in spring 2010 and has won the praise of barbecue aficionados and has been named one of the city’s better restaurants. It has also been feature on the Food Network‘s Guy Fieri featured it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Pecan Lodge Not Only Deep Ellum Action
Dallas Police also responded to a shooting leaving one dead and five injured overnight in Deep Ellum.
Dallas murder rate is ahead of last year’s which broke a ten year record.
