Mikel's Thoughts by Mike Virdell

The Robin Hood Plan implemented into our Texas school system back in the early 1990s’ has drained about $40,000,000.00 from Llano County taxpayers. This a county of less than 20,000…and over the past 15 years has an average population during this period of about 16,000 folks.

Two times in the past four years the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the Robin Hood Plan is “Unconstitutional”. It is the sharing of the wealth that makes the distribution of all funds be deemed a “state property tax”. Plain and simple. It is against the law.

Llano is scheduled to send the State for distribution about $11,000,000 this year. I repeat. It is against the law.

There is only one logical way to end this horrid distribution of our wealth. Llano as a “rich school district” should also become the leader in action as well as a philosophical abhorrence to breaking the law. We should just say no. We’re keeping our money. Selfish? Dang right. But no one in the State of Texas has been more generous than Llano County people on a per capitol basis. We’ve shared our wealth, and have little…so very little to show for it.

Our entire school system is a shambles. No child left behind is a joke among educators. With the system in place now, everyone is left behind. There are few accelerated programs at Llano school anymore. Teachers spend 75% of their time on the lowest achievers, trying their level headed best to put a round peg in a square hole. Passing the TAKS test has become an obsession…not generated from Llano, but at the State level. Then teachers are judged on these results. The final result is kids pass frequently the TAKS test, and cannot spell, cannot read, cannot write, and few have ever heard of the Preamble, much less learn the discipline of memorizing such a document.

What selfishly can we do? Keep the money. The State cannot do one thing to us. The Federal Government can do nothing to us. We get zero help from either. Llano even buys its own books. Last year several businesses in Llano paid for all of the book covers in our schools. They can’t take anything away from us.
What we can do is this. We keep the money. First year…every teacher gets a $5,000 raise. We spend $1,000,000 on a complete rehab of the now vacant “old high school”. We spend $1,500,000 so that every student has a lap top computer. We hire at least 5 of the top teachers in the State and pay them accordingly to implement the highest level of education for most gifted students at the junior high level. We hire 10 of the best resource teachers found anywhere to implement programs that lift up our struggling under achievers. We make available in every classroom from kindergarten to sixth grade, teachers that have every student speaking two languages by the time they get to junior high. We take the old high school building and implement technology training beginning in the 10th grade for students that choose to learn skills that put them in the job force. Welding, vehicle maintaince, computer technology, nursing school, and others. And we pay our bonded indebtedness down by $5,000,000. In the second year, we pay it down by $7,000,000.00. In year three, we pay it off. In Year four, Llano property taxes are slashed to .90, down from presently $1.62. In year four you have the best private school system in the State of Texas.

And you know why? Because we can afford it.

A few years ago, a law suite was won that required the UIL to allow private and even home schooled children the right to participate in UIL activities. Llano would remain a very active and high achieving extra curricular school district. We would just be private. Home owned and operated. We would do away with TAKS test. We would see to it that no child was left behind. We can do all of this on the local level. Llano has played the game for over a decade now. It is time we worried about Llano children…and Llano taxes…and the results should only be the concerns of Llano residents.

All this takes is will. All this takes is leadership. I believe that we have the leadership in place. Yet leaders must have backing of the people. It has been estimated that during the Revolutionary War, less than 30% of people actually supported George Washington and the militia. 30% of the people in Llano County could get this done, if we have the will.

Last week I mentioned that there was more to the story of Mayor Roger Pinckney and his history with TXDOT. In my opinion, this is important for you to know the complete story. It will take up more space than afforded here today. Read about this subject next week only in the Llano Buzz.