‘No trust, no bond:’ Teachers union-backed poll claims voters do NOT support Houston ISD bond proposal

HOUSTON – A newly released poll backed by the Texas Federation of Teachers is showing more voters in Houston ISD do not support the $4.4 billion bond proposal.

PREVIOUS: More than 75% of Houston ISD residents support bond proposal without tax increases

The report says only 39% of voters support the historic bond package “to update and repair HISD buildings and for new technology.”

The poll report says this is largely because there’s minimal trust for the state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, or trust for him to manage funds.

“A 77% majority don’t trust Miles to manage HISD funds,” according to poll researchers with Z to A Research. “Large majorities of base Democrats (87% don’t trust) and independents (77%) don’t trust Miles, and even 51% of base Republicans don’t trust the Governor’s hand-picked superintendent to manage HISD’s funds. Voters don’t consider him trustworthy (78% not well) or effective (75% not well) and 58% consider him corrupt.”

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These results are in stark contrast with a poll conducted by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, where 75% of Houston ISD residents were in favor of one of the largest bond proposals in Texas history as long as it didn’t raise taxes more than 1 percent.

“School bonds tend to be popular, and this appears to be the case for Houston ISD, despite it being a year of transition for the district,” said Kori Stroub, associate director of research for the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium. “From January to August, support for a bond that doesn’t increase taxes is virtually unchanged.”

MORE: Report from Rice University’s Kinder Institute shows over 73% of Texas schools are underfunded

However, the teachers’ union-backed poll claims otherwise, reiterating (multiple times) the voters’ distrust for Governor Greg Abbott and his so-called allies.

“The solution to struggling schools is for the state to increase public education funding, not to replace our local elected leaders with Abbott allies and then increase local taxes,” the union’s poll claims voters agree on 77%. “No trust, no bond.”