Crandall ISD Asks Voters a Third Straight Year for a Higher Tax Rate

This is an Election Day preview. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3.

For the third November in a row, Crandall ISD is asking its voters to approve a higher school tax rate. Voters turned down the first two requests. This one asks for less.

Proposition A on the Kaufman County sample ballot asks voters to ratify a tax rate of $1.1964 per $100 of property value. The ballot says that rate would raise the district's maintenance and operations revenue 7.04 percent over last year, an extra $1,288,613. It carries the label "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE."

Two tries, two defeats

The district posts its past election records on its elections page. The board's canvass order for the November 2024 vote shows voters were asked to ratify a $1.2869 rate, a 24.74 percent jump in operating revenue worth $5,834,282. It failed, 5,104 votes for and 5,970 against.

Last year the district came back smaller. The November 2025 canvass order shows a $1.1992 rate, a 9.79 percent increase worth $1,713,926. It failed by a wider margin, 1,394 for and 2,059 against. By our math, the measure drew about 46 percent of the vote in 2024 and about 40 percent in 2025.

This year's request is smaller again, both in the rate and in the dollar figure on the ballot.

A map of Dallas-Fort Worth area school districts, made in 2021 from U.S. Census Bureau data, with Crandall ISD shaded red. Photo: T-Ro Trains / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What the district says the money would do

The district's Proposition A page says the measure would bring in about $4 million a year in new operating money. That is a larger number than the one on the ballot because, the district says, most of it would come from the state through the school finance formulas. The page says about 80 percent would come from Texas, or roughly $4 in state money for every $1 raised locally. One section of the same page puts the state's share at 75 percent instead.

According to the district, about $3 million would go to pay. Every certified teacher would get a $4,000 raise. Other employees would get 4 percent, capped at $4,000. The remaining $1 million or so would pay for more teachers, instructional aides and other campus staff as enrollment grows. The district says none of it would go to new central-office administrators.

The district estimates the cost to the average homeowner at $3.95 a month after exemptions. It gives several reasons for asking again:

• Enrollment has grown 54 percent in five years.

• About 10 percent of its certified teachers left for other districts last school year.

• It is the only school district in Kaufman County that has not passed one of these tax elections.

The district also points out that it holds the state's top financial accountability rating.

Also on Crandall ballots

The same sample ballot also lists two Kaufman County Emergency Services District No. 7 propositions. They ask whether to add the area inside Crandall's city limits to that district and whether that area would take on its share of the district's debts and taxes. The ballot puts the district's maximum tax rate for fiscal 2027 at 8.8 cents per $100.

For more on school tax elections elsewhere and on nearby Forney, read our coverage of Bastrop ISD and Forney.

Our view

Crandall voters have said no twice, and that answer deserved respect. The district seems to have heard it. This request is smaller, the spending plan is spelled out and the money is aimed at classrooms, not the central office. A teacher who loves children and stays put is worth a great deal to a growing town. Voters should weigh this request on its merits, and if they say no a third time, the board should take that as final for now.