Texas
Dallas-Houston bullet train developer vows project is on track, but state officials lack confidence
![Dallas-Houston bullet train developer vows project is on track, but state officials lack confidence](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/tgrVn50XhgoSmkQFtPt9muEOBU8=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/2c500980d53bf3d50ab29d839e80ddda/Dallas%20Bullet%20Train%20BT%20TT%2010.jpg)
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A lawyer for practically 100 property homeowners who’re dwelling with the specter of their land being seized mentioned he’ll search authorized motion towards Texas Central, the corporate that for a decade has promised to construct a bullet practice between Dallas and Houston, if the corporate doesn’t present extra particulars concerning the looming venture.
Landowners whose property may very well be within the path of the practice observe have petitioned the corporate
to reply their questions. Patrick McShan, the lawyer representing property homeowners, mentioned he’s ready to ask a decide to permit him to depose the corporate — which has mentioned little concerning the venture — to get solutions for his purchasers.
The authorized risk towards Texas Central comes a decade after the corporate unveiled a plan to assemble a 240-mile bullet practice, modeled after the Japanese Shinkansen trains, between Dallas and Houston.
Regardless of the preliminary pleasure of a high-speed rail practice in Texas, a veil of silence has fallen over the corporate.
Whereas Texas Central secured eminent area authority to grab non-public property from the Texas Supreme Courtroom, the CEO, Carlos Aguilar, and board of administrators departed, leaving the corporate within the arms of an outdoor marketing consultant.
The shortage of communication from Texas Central has left the landowners McShan represents in limbo.
“For six, seven, eight years, they’ve had to fall asleep each night time questioning in the event that they’re going to lose their property,” McShan mentioned, referring to the landowners he represents. “They use their property as collateral for loans and to run their enterprise and it’s simply been hanging over their heads eternally.”
McShan’s checklist of questions included inquiries concerning the firm’s leadershipand permits for the venture.
Robert Neblett, Texas Central’s lawyer, mentioned the corporate spent a “appreciable sum” of cash buying property for this venture. Neblett added the corporate owns lots of of tracts of land bought for this venture, however he didn’t affirm The Texas Tribune’s evaluation of property owned by Texas Central.
“Texas Central’s chief govt is Michael Bui. Texas Central shouldn’t be at the moment searching for a CEO to exchange him neither is it searching for a brand new Board of Administrators,” Neblett mentioned in an emailed assertion to the Tribune.
Neblett added that Texas Central plans to acquire any and all federal Floor Transportation Board certifications required to assemble and function the venture.
Bui is a senior administration marketing consultant with FTI Consulting, a enterprise advisory that lists company restoration as certainly one of his {qualifications}. Bui additionally served as an adviser to a personal power firm that offered energy to the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas following its court-ordered restructuring after the February 2021 freeze that brought on lots of of deaths whereas knocking out energy and warmth to thousands and thousands of individuals.
Texas Central made a uncommon public assertion Wednesday, sharing a photograph of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Metropolis Council members and Higher Houston Partnership President and CEO Bob Harvey throughout an “funding and commerce mission” in Tokyo and Chiba, a sister metropolis of Houston.
The corporate mentioned the Houston leaders mentioned the high-speed rail venture on the journey. Native Houston and Dallas leaders have lengthy championed the venture that might join the 2 Texas cities.
Nonetheless in rivalry is how a lot land the corporate has acquired within the 10 years because the venture was introduced, and the way a lot land continues to be wanted for the bullet practice.
Texas Central owns upwards of 330 properties throughout the ten counties the corporate has indicated to construct in. A few of these tracts occupy only one,500 sq. toes, a fraction of an acre, whereas others span upwards of 20 acres, in accordance with an evaluation by the Tribune of knowledge from native appraisal districts.
The overall worth of these properties was appraised at greater than $38 million, although some counties listed solely the market value.
One of many landowners’ main issues is the choice for Texas Central to make use of eminent area to grab non-public property. In June, the Texas Supreme Courtroom dominated that the corporate and its companions did qualify as “interurban electrical railway corporations” and will invoke eminent area authority to construct the high-speed rail venture.
“Eminent area will solely be used as a final resort to amass property, ought to negotiations fail, for these properties that haven’t been acquired. We don’t know right now when that may happen,” Neblett mentioned in response to questions concerning the firm’s authority to grab non-public property.
McShan mentioned the state’s Supreme Courtroom settled the eminent area determination, however he has a listing of lingering questions for Texas Central.
“You should come and sit somebody down,” McShan informed the Tribune. “Give me a witness and persuade me that you simply’re nonetheless planning to do that, after which perhaps I don’t file a lawsuit.”
In the course of the 2022 Texas Tribune Pageant in September, transportation officers have been requested concerning the feasibility of the venture’s success.
“The final time we heard from them was over a 12 months in the past,” mentioned Bruce Bugg, chair of the Texas Transportation Fee. He mentioned the Texas Division of Transportation, which he oversees, served as technical advisers for an environmental evaluation of the venture launched by the Federal Railroad Administration in November 2020. However since then, Texas Central has stopped speaking with the state’s transportation company.
State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, the chair of the state Home Transportation Committee, mentioned with Texas’ speedy inhabitants progress, high-speed rail would vastly profit the state however it could doubtless should be backed.
“It needs to be one thing we acquired within the toolbox that we’re going to consider, however the concept it’s going to be paid for and preserve itself by non-public trade — the numbers merely don’t work,” Canales mentioned.
State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, the chair of the state Senate Committee on Transportation, shared Canales’ funding issues. Nichols famous that each high-speed rail venture on the planet requires authorities subsidies, but Texas Central has maintained that public financing is not going to be essential to fund the bullet practice. He mentioned financing the practice isn’t one thing he would take into account when drafting the state price range, as a result of the venture serves solely a restricted inhabitants.
Across the final time Bugg heard from the corporate, Texas Central had scaled again its efforts to amass land to construct the practice primarily based on an evaluation of public data.
Since then, a lot of the corporate’s public presence has diminished over time, with little details about the bullet practice’s progress identified.
Joshua Fechter contributed to this story.
Disclosure: Higher Houston Partnership and Texas Central have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.
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Texas
Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations
![Fort Worth's Sky Elements Will Be Droning North Texas with Fourth of July Celebrations](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sky-Elements-record-setting-2023-July-4th-drone-show-Photo-Sky-Elements.jpg)
A moment from Sky Elements’ record-setting 2023 July 4th drone show [Photo: Sky Elements]
Last month, the Fort Worth-based drone light show company Sky Elements put their dazzling nighttime sky skills on national TV with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” earning a “golden buzzer” from Simon Cowell himself.
The 400-foot-tall, 300-foot wide display in the skies outside the the show’s studio featured a rocket liftoff and an image of Cowell in the sky as a waving, space-walking astronaut, capped by the AGT logo.
“It was really patriotic,” Cowell told the Sky Elements team after the demonstration. “And I think the way you told the story, the use of music, whether you’re 3 years old, whether you’re 100 years old, I think you’re absolutely going to love that audition.”
You can watch that AGT clip here for a cool, behind-the-scenes look at how the team’s drone show takes off.
See for yourself this coming week
Or you can watch Sky Elements in action yourself all over North Texas in the next week:
Tomorrow, Saturday June 29 at Toyota Stadium, Sky Elements will give a performance during FC Dallas’ 7:30 p.m. game against FC Cincinnati.
On Wednesday July 3, Sky Elements will perform Fourth of July shows in two local cities. The first will be the Denton Independence Day celebration at Quakertown Park, with “flight times” at 9:15 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The second will be held Wednesday during day 1 of a 2-day Sparks & Stripes celebration in Irving, with a drone and fireworks show at 9:20 p.m. at Levy Event Plaza over Lake Carolyn.
First drone light show to get FAA fireworks approval
![](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pyro-drone-show-by-Sky-Elements-Video-still-Sky-Elements.png)
“Pyro drone show” with fireworks on drones by Sky Elements [Video still: Sky Elements]
In May, Sky Elements announced that it had become “the first U.S.-based drone light show company to receive FAA approval to attach fireworks to drones.”
The company had been working on obtaining the waiver for 26 months before the FAA finally granted its approval. The FAA green light allows Sky Elements to legally attach and launch fireworks from drones during their shows, creating what they call “pyro drone shows.”
It’s not the first time Sky Elements has made history. On Fourth of July 2023, the company snagged a Guinness World Records title for the largest aerial formation of words created by drones (by using 1,002 drones). Then last December, the company broke two more Guiness World Records with a 1,499-drone show in North Richland Hills.
And when Major League Cricket held its historic opening night last July in Grand Prairie, Sky Elements was there to mark the occasion with a drone light show.
Not just all over North Texas—all over the U.S., too
The DFW shows coming next week are just a glimmer of the stunning amount of events Sky Elements is booked for across the U.S. You can check out the company’s master list of performances by going here—including a patriotically astounding amount of shows it’s doing around this year’s July 4th.
Get on the list.
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Texas
Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas
![Massive dust plume from Sahara Desert to bring hazy skies to Florida, Texas](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A new tropical disturbance is now being monitored for development in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just in the wake of Invest 95L, which is on the cusp of becoming a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Beryl.
HOUSTON — A massive plume of dust from Africa’s Saharan Desert is blowing across the entire Atlantic Ocean this week, set to reach the shores of Florida and Texas in the coming days and casting a haze over typically blue skies.
The plume is currently forecast to skirt South Florida late Friday night into early Saturday morning, then push into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Eventually, the plume is forecast to move into Southeast Texas Sunday into Monday, with Corpus Christi and perhaps Houston likely to see some of the effects.
Coastal communities along the Florida Peninsula and the Gulf Coast are accustomed to seeing plumes of Saharan dust over the summer, which can impact air quality, produce colorful sunrises and sunsets, and reduce the chances of precipitation.
182 million tons of dust a year carried away from Africa
As daily triple-digit heat bakes the Saharan Desert, hot, dry air rises from the surface and carries fine particles of dust from the sands. That dust-laden air climbs to the highest reaches of the atmosphere, where winds called the Easterlies or Trade Winds (blowing from east to west) carry that dust about 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean into the Western Hemisphere in what’s known as the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SAHARAN DUST PLUME
According to NASA, about 182 million tons of dust leave Africa every year, though that amount can vary depending on the amount of rainfall south of the Sahara region.
![FOX Model Wide with Dust Tracker](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/FOX-Model-Wide-with-Dust-Tracker.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Depending on the amount of dust being carried by the plume, air quality can be drastically affected. This means that people who have certain types of breathing problems can experience difficulty. People in the path of the plume can also experience eye, nose and throat irritation because of the fine dust particles in the air, according to WebMD.
The dry air from the hot, sandy desert also works to suppress tropical development and significant plumes of dust and dry air are common in the Atlantic during the first two and a half months of the hurricane season.
![Saharan Dust Trend](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/668/376/Saharan-Dust-Trend.png?ve=1&tl=1)
However, the current situation is a bit unusual in that there is quite a bit of tropical activity percolating in the Atlantic even with a significant dust layer.
Invest 95L and another tropical disturbance just to its east are holding positions just south of the dust layer, and are feeding off available moisture to their south to skirt the edges of the dust layer as they trek west.
However, the dust layer may become an important variable in the storms’ future development depending on their track.
Texas
The Growing Financial Strain of Charter School Expansion on Texas Public Schools
![The Growing Financial Strain of Charter School Expansion on Texas Public Schools](https://www.texasaft.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-13.png)
Every year, the State Board of Education (SBOE) approves new charter schools following a comprehensive application, review, and public hearing process that culminates in late June. The commissioner of education also approves dozens of new charter schools through the charter expansion amendment process each year, a process which lacks SBOE input and involves minimal accountability and transparency with no public notice or hearings.
To support SBOE members in making informed decisions about approving or vetoing new charter applications, Texas AFT collaborates with a broad coalition of public education advocates to analyze Texas Education Agency (TEA) data on school districts’ finances, enrollment, transfers, and cost of recapture. The rigorous analysis we provide to SBOE members aims to:
- Estimate the current revenue loss experienced by school districts within new charters’ proposed geographic boundaries due to students transferring from their home school districts to charter schools (“charter transfers out” or “charter transfers”).
- Project the additional estimated revenue loss these districts would face if new charters were approved based on their requested maximum enrollment.
- Connect charter expansion with other relevant fiscal impacts, such as districts’ costs of recapture. Every new charter student increases districts’ recapture payments to the state that fund charter schools.
This data-driven approach not only aids SBOE decision-making but also supports local advocacy efforts. School district officials, parents, educators, and community organizations use this information to voice their concerns to the SBOE, especially in districts facing rapid charter school expansion and its negative fiscal impacts. Across Texas, charter expansion is contributing to growing budget deficits, forcing many districts to consider closing neighborhood schools and holding Voter Approval Tax Rate Elections (VATREs) to balance their budgets.
In response to public education stakeholders from across the state voicing their concerns, the SBOE vetoed two of the five Generation 29 charter applications in its preliminary vote on Wednesday, June 26, including two of the three new charters that our union has been most concerned about. One of the proposed charters was to be located within Arlington ISD, the school district with the ninth highest total estimated loss of revenue to charter transfers from the 2019-2020 through the 2023-2024 school year. These results were upheld in the final vote on Friday, June 28.
Texas AFT extends the use of this district-level data to our legislative advocacy. During legislative sessions and the interims between them, we meet with current and prospective Texas Legislature members to discuss public education advocates’ concerns about charter school expansion and share data on how expansion affects the school districts they represent. This data-driven approach is effective to demonstrate the fiscal impact of charter schools even among legislators who were initially unconcerned about charter expansion. These hard facts help counter misleading claims made by charter school marketing campaigns and the many well-funded lobbyists employed by the charter industry.
Detailed analyses of charter expansion’s fiscal impact on affected school districts can be found on our website. The results of our updated analysis on estimated revenue loss due to charter transfers are alarming. School districts statewide are experiencing a large and growing drain on their resources due directly to charter expansion, as charters enrolled about 8 percent of Texas students (ADA) in FY 2023 but received about 20% of Foundation School Program state aid for public education.
Major urban districts like Houston ISD and Dallas ISD continue to experience significant fiscal impacts due to unlimited charter expansion, while smaller school districts have seen a comparatively small number of charter transfers translate into a large impact on their budgets. School districts in the Rio Grande Valley and the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, and Austin areas have seen the most charter expansion over the past several years. Charter schools are rapidly expanding into rural Texas as well.
These figures represent a significant financial burden, diverting resources that could otherwise enhance educational services and student experiences in public schools. The scope of this issue is expanding, as evidenced by the increasing number of affected districts and the rising total estimated revenue losses:
- 2019-2020: $2.82 billion (at least 297 districts affected)
- 2020-2021: $3.25 billion (at least 309 districts affected)
- 2021-2022: $3.32 billion (at least 312 districts affected)
- 2022-2023: $3.56 billion (at least 322 districts affected)
- 2023-2024: $3.60 billion (at least 325 districts affected)
When considering these figures, it is also important to realize that the number of charter transfers, total estimated revenue loss, and tally of affected districts are undercounts because the number of charter transfers out from a school district are sometimes not available (i.e. masked) to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Masked numbers are typically small although larger numbers may be masked to prevent imputation.
However, the available data reveals a growing financial strain on public education resources:
- The number of districts experiencing revenue loss due to charter transfers increased from at least 297 in 2019-2020 to at least 325 in 2023-2024.
- At least 377 districts have faced some level of revenue loss due to charter transfers over the five-year period.
The implications of these findings extend beyond district finances to the communities they serve. The growing financial pressure could lead to:
- Increased class sizes, layoffs, and cuts to pay and benefits as districts struggle to balance budgets without necessary funding.
- Reductions in extracurricular and academic programs, particularly those serving economically disadvantaged communities where charter expansion has been most prevalent.
- Potential school closures, which have devastating effects on local communities and economies, leading to longer commutes for students and job losses for educators and support staff.
The trends of increasing revenue losses and the broadening impact across more districts are unsustainable and demand immediate attention from policymakers. Action is needed to mitigate further adverse effects on public schools and ensure a more equitable approach to public and charter school funding. The data clearly shows that the financial viability of many districts is at risk, which has severe implications for educational quality and equity across the state.
These stark realities underscore the need for robust, data-driven discussions among policymakers, educators, and community stakeholders. As we advocate for a more equitable approach, we must consider:
- Implementing a more rigorous approval process for new charter schools and expansions, with greater emphasis on their potential impact on existing public schools and taxpayers.
- Developing funding mechanisms that do not disproportionately disadvantage public school districts when students transfer to charter schools or create a funding advantage for charters.
- Increasing transparency in charter school operations and finances to ensure they are held to the same standards of accountability as public schools.
- Investing in public schools to enhance their ability to meet diverse student needs, reducing the perceived need for inefficient, parallel systems such as charter schools or private school vouchers.
- Establishing a moratorium on new charter schools and on the expansion of existing charter school networks through charter expansion amendments.
- Conducting a comprehensive study of charter school impact on public education, including the fiscal impact on public school districts, the state budget, students, school employees, and taxpayers.
Texas AFT remains committed to using data-driven advocacy to protect and strengthen our public education system. We call on all stakeholders – legislators, educators, parents, and community members – to engage in this critical conversation about the future of public education in Texas. By working together and making informed decisions based on comprehensive data, we can ensure that all Texas students have access to high-quality education without compromising the financial stability of our public school districts.
The challenge before us is significant, but with continued advocacy and collaboration, we can work towards a more equitable and sustainable educational landscape for all Texas students to thrive.
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