Texas Public Policy Foundation Director of the Center for Local Governance James Quintero issued the following statement on the Texas House Committee on Public Education passage of House Bill 506, which would allow certain school districts with already high debt levels to exceed the state’s 50-cent debt limit in some situations:
“Texas school districts are awash in debt. In fiscal year 2014, school district debt totaled more than $112 billion, the most by far of any type of local government in Texas. Proposals to allow school districts to exceed or avoid the 50-cent debt limit and get further into the red should viewed with extreme prejudice by Texas legislators. More debt is not the answer to the problems that plague public education.”
James Quintero is director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.