Austin, TX

Texas schools hoping lawmakers increase funding during legislative session

Published

1 year ago

January 8, 2025

Texas schools hoping lawmakers increase funding during legislative session

AISD budget deficit and the Texas legislature

The new legislative session starts soon. All this month, 7 On Your Side will be taking a look at some of the big issues at the state capitol. Among them is education after the legislature failed to pass a school funding measures during the last session. As a result, districts across Central Texas are finding themselves “in the red,” including Austin ISD

AUSTIN, Texas – The new legislative session starts in one week. Among the major issues facing lawmakers will be education, after the legislature failed to pass a school funding measure during the last session. Against that backdrop, districts across Central Texas are finding themselves in the red, including Austin ISD.

“In my time on the board, we have not had this much of a deficit,” said Austin ISD board president Arati Singh.

Singh is concerned about the current $92 million budget deficit, about 10% of the overall budget.

“It is tough. It’s not easy,” said SIngh.

“I am definitely concerned as a school leader,” said Melissa Rodriguez, principal of Lively Middle School.

In fact, about two-thirds of districts in Central Texas are operating in a deficit right now, and many ISD leaders point to stagnant public school funding from the state.

“There is something historic happening here that our state is choosing not to fund public education,” said Singh.

Texas: The Issue Is: School choice fight

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is confident that school choice legislation will pass during the next legislative session, but Democrats say they won’t roll over without a fight. FOX 7’s Rudy Koski talks to vocal voucher opponent State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, about the fight ahead and if there is room for common ground.

In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott’s school choice voucher plan fell short, and public school funding measures that were tied to it stalled as well, like teacher pay raises, enhanced career training for students, and raising what’s known as the “basic allotment”, the per-student amount that districts get from the state. The basic allotment has been stuck at $6,160 since 2019, despite big-time inflation since then.

“We rank near the bottom nationally in this per student funding,” said Singh. “It’s not actually based on the cost of actually educating a child.”

Singh also points to increased costs related to House Bill 3, the school safety law passed in 2023.

On top of that, Austin ISD pays out hundreds of millions of dollars in school property tax money to the state every year in what’s known as “recapture,” a way to even out the wealth among Texas districts. Last year, AISD’s payment was $699 million, the highest in the state. That amount is based on local property values.

MORE 7 ON YOUR SIDE STORIES:

“Yeah, it is [unfair], because property values really don’t have a whole heck of a lot to do with the needs of students in a city,” said Singh. “Over half of our students are economically disadvantaged.”

So, with the $92 million shortfall in mind, a committee was formed, which spent the fall figuring out how to make it up over three years. That plan was presented to the board in December.

“It is difficult,” said Superintendent Matias Segura at the December 12 meeting. “Everything has an impact.”

In this current school year, the proposed cuts include things like eliminating some vacant positions, changes to technology, reorganizing departments, and reducing the number of special education vendors.

In the 2025-26 school year, the district plans to have some central office employees work from home, so it can lease space in that building, as well as changing bus routes, optimizing master schedules, and reducing portable classrooms, among other things.

AISD gives update on special education

Austin ISD leaders provided an update on its progress in meeting the requirement for special education services.

The catch?

“We don’t know yet how much of a cost reduction each of these will yield,” said Segura.

If the budget is not reduced by enough next year, that’s when district officials say the cuts will really start being felt at the school level.

“I am concerned that we would maybe have to consider increasing class sizes,” said Singh. “Cutting planning periods for our staff.”

“We have to do more with less,” said Lively Middle School Principal Melissa Rodriguez.

Rodriguez says any cuts to the arts would be very tough.

“Our students absolutely love participating in music, art, theater, guitar, orchestra. They are motivated by that,” said Rodriguez. “So if we take that from them, we’re really taking a big part of what they love.

Some parents and teachers are urging caution.

“I’m confused about why you would rush to vote on a budget when we don’t yet know what will come out of the legislative session,” said Tracy Dunlap, a teacher at Maplewood Elementary School, at the November 21 AISD board meeting.

Abbott moves even closer to passing school vouchers

Election night brought Texas Gov. Greg Abbott another step closer to getting his school choice plans passed, allowing taxpayer dollars to help parents pay for private school tuition.

But, as all this happens, some are opening up their pocketbooks to help.

“People who reach out to us and say ‘I’m seeing what’s happening to public schools and I care and I want to do something to support it,’” said Michelle Wallis, executive director of the Austin Education Fund.

“The work that we’re doing through the Austin Ed Fund feels even more critical now,” said Wallis. “We funded 66 projects across Austin to the tune of about $450,000 this year.”

Still, the district will need much more to get out of the current hole. Recent comments from Gov. Greg Abbott about the upcoming session has some people feeling optimistic.

“We will fully fund public schools in the state of Texas. We will provide teacher pay raises,” Abbott said in November.

Austin ISD listed recapture reform among its legislative priorities. But for Singh, boosting the basic allotment will be the real game-changer.

“We really need the state to step up,” said Singh.

Austin’s budget deficit would be even higher if not for $30 million in cuts that were made at the central office over the summer, including 12 layoffs, as well as $20 million from the passage of Proposition A by voters in November.

The upcoming round of cuts is expected to be finalized by the school board in the coming weeks.

The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s John Krinjak

7 On Your SideEducationTexas PoliticsAustin

Source link

Related Topics:7 on your side Austin education Featured news Travis County Tx Tx Politics

Click to comment

Austin, TX

City of Austin Launched New Website This Week

Published

12 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

City of Austin Launched New Website This Week

The City of Austin launched a new website on Thursday that is intended to bring both a fresh, modern look and better functionality to city business.

The city announced the change in a Wednesday press release. According to the statement, the new website is part of the city’s new digital experience platform, providing significant improvements to its digital services.

Starting Thursday morning, visitors found a “fully responsive” website that should work smoothly across desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile devices.

City Manager T.C. Broadnax celebrated the news. “The launch of the new and improved AustinTexas.Gov has been a long time coming, and I am proud to say that the City of Austin website is now the most efficient place to connect Austinites with the information and resources they need,” he said.

“We have worked hard to make everything on the site easier to find and navigate—whether that’s adopting your next pet, viewing your recycling schedule, or paying your utility bill,” he added.

The new site features updated search capabilities by adding filtering options and better indexing and functions that will return more accurate results.

Community feedback gathered in the initial planning phases of the design helped guide the new site features and improved user experience. In the coming weeks, the city will welcome additional feedback by prompting site visitors to complete a short survey.

The feedback will help inform ongoing improvements and enhancements to the website, which will allow it to continue to evolve to meet the needs of residents.

Source link

Austin, TX

Lead

Published

24 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Austin is fortunate to have very low levels of lead in drinking water compared to other parts of the country. Our source waters of Lake Austin and Lake Travis contain no lead, and there is no lead in Austin’s treated drinking water.

Austin Water’s lime softening treatment process, in use since the 1920s, produces non-corrosive, scale-forming water that creates a protective coating on the inside of pipes. This prevents materials such as lead and copper from leaching into the water. More than 30 years before federal bans took effect, Austin also enacted local rules prohibiting lead in plumbing. When lead is occasionally detected at the tap, it is almost always due to contamination from private plumbing or fixtures.

In October 2024, Austin Water completed field investigations of all water service lines in the system. There are no lead service lines in Austin Water’s distribution system.

Source link

Austin, TX

Texas Toll Road Will Be Test Ground for Autonomous Big Rigs

Published

1 day ago

March 18, 2026

Press Room

Texas Toll Road Will Be Test Ground for Autonomous Big Rigs

(TNS) — Self-driving truck firm Einride will soon begin using a Central Texas highway as a test bed for its purpose-built, cabless autonomous freight vehicles.

Einride is partnering with SH 130 Concession Co. to position the Texas 130 toll road, which connects Austin and San Antonio, as a corridor for autonomous freight operations.

Founded in 2016, Einride has more than 25 enterprise customers across North America, Europe and the Middle East. Based in Sweden with U.S. headquarters in Austin, it boasts a proprietary AI platform with a zero-traffic incident safety record.

“This partnership with SH 130 Concession Co. marks an important step forward in proving the scalability and economic benefits of electric and autonomous freight,” said Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli. “By establishing this test bed, Einride is further cementing Austin, Texas, as a hub for our American autonomous freight operations, collaborating with infrastructure operators and regulators to scale safe, performance-based deployments.”

In an announcement Tuesday, Einride said it will test autonomous highway operations on Segments 5 and 6 of Texas 130, which start at the Texas 45 SE split south of Austin near Mustang Ridge and extend through Seguin to I-10. The Texas Department of Transportation operates the northern segments of Texas 130.

Its tests arrive in a complex regulatory environment, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Congress considering how to address the rapidly increasing number of autonomous vehicles on city streets and highways.

But Einride and SH 130 Concession Co. say their partnership provides a strategic route for fleets to move freight reliably through the region.

Einride, which had a fleet of about 200 autonomous and electric trucks as of late 2025, says it operates one of the world’s largest electric heavy-duty fleets. Its autonomous trucks are in daily operation with customers in both the U.S and in Europe. Some of its work has included PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay food distribution near Memphis and transport of finished goods between GE Appliances’ manufacturing facility and warehouse in Selmer, Tenn.

Einride’s new partnership with the private company that operates and maintains the southern section of the state-owned highway could be a higher-stakes test of its autonomous tech.

SH 130 Concession recorded more than 12.6 million transactions on the roadway in 2023 and boasts itself as a safe and fast alternative to the congested Interstate 35 route through the region. The segment of the toll road Einride will use to test its vehicles has the nation’s highest speed limit at 85 mph.

To charge its vehicles, Einride and SH 130 Concession say they are drafting a blueprint for a next-generation rest stop. The stop will manage the autonomous trucks with high-capacity EV charging and specialized docking requirements.

The partners are also exploring the feasibility of integrating Einride’s optimization software, known as Saga AI, with SH 130 Concession’s digital ecosystem to handle data sharing and traffic management.

SH 130 Concession Co. CEO Ananth Prasad said the partnership supports the company’s push for new transportation technology in Texas.

“We’re actively working with freight customers, industry partners and TxDOT to implement new technology solutions,” he said in a statement. “And by aligning digital infrastructure, connectivity readiness, and future charging capacity, SH 130 Concession Company is advancing its ambition to establish the roadway as a nationally recognized route for autonomous freight movement.”

Source link