LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor, Electionitis? Pollaphobia? Campaigniasis?
I’m not sure which, exactly, is the right word, but I’m hearing from people I know all across the county. They’re telling me that they’re glad it’s over. They may be happy that their favored candidates won, or disappointed that the candidates they supported lost. But at least the near-constant drumbeat of the March 3 Democratic and Republican Primary Elections get-out-thevote effort has gone silent.
At least for a while.
After all, voters in Hays County – from both parties – are looking at a good handful of runoff elections on May 26. Some are at the state level and, at least for Democrats, three are at the County level: County Judge; Judge, County Court at Law #2; and County Clerk.
Some voters are glad for the quiet time until the November General Election. Others are champing at the bit to work to pull off wins in the runoffs.
Lost in the hubbub is the election that often seems to be the stepchild of the electoral process. That’s the San Marcos School Board election – originally scheduled for May 2. The problem is that the school board election seems to get cancelled even more often than it actually happens. So it’s pretty easy for voters to tuck it away in the back of their minds and forget all about it.
And that’s a shame. The San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District serves more than 8,000 students drawn from three counties, though primarily here in Hays. It’s supported by a staff that includes more than 600 teachers. It operates six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. It offers rich enhancement programs and a broad range of extracurricular activities. It participates in joint programs with Texas State University and Austin Community College. It’s a key community anchor and an immense source of local pride. It’s the lynchpin of a successful future for San Marcos, its residents and, most importantly, its students.
For the current school year, the San Marcos CISD adopted a budget of almost $95 million. As the San Marcos Daily Record reported, that represents a reduction of some $10 million from the previous year. Even with that level of fiscal discipline, estimated General Fund revenues of more than $88 million will still result in a shortfall that is expected to approach $7 million.
And amid this troubling financial picture, our public schools are faced with the very real possibility of losing $1 billion in state funding as Governor Greg Abbot’s school voucher giveaway kicks in at the start of the next school year. That’s a figure that is expected to grow year after year.
The voucher system is euphemistically called “Texas Education Freedom Accounts,” but the so-called “freedom” is only for the very few. Initially, the program is expected to benefit about 90,000 students across the state – out of Texas’s almost more than 5.6 million public school students. For everyone else, the freedom for the fortunate few is nothing but a step along the road to a society that creates – and tolerates – using public money to the advantage of some at the expense of others.
Talk about doing more with less! We are blessed with teachers, administrators, and staff at every level of the organization who work tirelessly for the success of our students. They come to work every day with ideas, creativity, commitment, and a desire to contribute to the success of every student.
The voucher Pollyannas somehow believe that siphoning off an infinitesimally small number of students from public schools to voucher schools will magically reduce expenses for public schools. Fewer classrooms, fewer teachers, fewer support staff, fewer books, fewer buses, fewer breakfast and lunch programs will balance it all out – or so they say.
But with more than 9,000 public schools in Texas, we’re looking at an average reduction of about 10 students per school. In a school district the size of San Marcos CISD – or Hays, or Dripping Springs, or Wimberley – can anybody really think that would result in anything more than reductions on paper?
The fact remains that the voucher system represents an existential threat to our public schools – one that is going to increase every year. But the key mechanism for public feedback into how our school system is operated – annual School Board Trustee Elections – has become an increasingly rare event. Which means discussion, debate, and public participation become just as rare.
San Marcos CISD Trustee Elections were cancelled this year. They were canceled in 2025. And they were canceled in 2024. Why? Because there was, at best, only one candidate for each trustee position that would have been on the ballot in each of those years. Actually, that’s an overstatement for this year, 2026, when three trustee positions would normally be on the ballot. But only two individuals – both incumbents – have filed to become candidates for single- member districts 1 and 3, respectively. For the third position, singlemember district 2, there are no filers at all.
And in those years when we did have elections?
In 2023, when the San Marcos school election included a $166 million dollar bond issue, as well two trustee seats, only 2,407 voters – about five percent of the district’s 47,000 registered voters went to the polls.
In 2022, with one single- member trustee district in play, 1,556 of San Marcos CISD voters went to the polls – almost 13 percent of those eligible in single-member district 4. This was a rare and welcome exception.
In 2021, with six candidates vying for two atlarge trustee positions, 1,929 voters, about four percent of the district’s total, cast ballots.
Then there’s 2020. That was the year Covid-19 turned the world on its head. The May School Board election was pushed back to November because of health concerns. How’d that work out? With two single- member trustee seats up for grabs, turnout jumped to a record 10,256 – just over 60 percent of the two districts’ 17,000 voters.
For as many years as I can remember, I’ve been talking to people about moving the San Marcos School Board elections to November, in an effort to have more voters weigh in and have a real role in shaping the future of education in our community. For as many years, people have been pushing back, telling me that’s asking too much of voters, particularly when national, state, county, and local positions demand their attention on the November ballot.
That’s certainly not giving voters the credit they deserve. Looking at turnout over the last several cycles, school board voters are telling us – loud and clear – when they want to vote. But, with our fingers in our ears, we keep telling them they’ll vote when we want them to vote. Case closed.
Maybe it’s time we started listening to the voters. The strongest democracy is the one with the strongest level of involvement. Voting history tells us how we can achieve that level. Let’s go for it. Maybe next year we’ll have an election.
Sincerely, Jon Leonard San Marcos
