Austin ISD now has 23 schools rated F

7,527 Views | 96 Replies | Last: 1 day ago by aggiehawg
aggie93
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Austin ISD is the prime example of liberal "leadership" on education. They throw insane money at it and get worse and worse results because they never focus on real solutions that could fix the problems. This is what Democrat leadership gets you. The financial numbers are staggering the debt and hole they are in and they have horrific results to show for it. State needs to take over. All in a District that is filled with some of the highest value property in the state to tax and liberal voters that will give them anything. What in the hell do they spend the money on because it sure as hell isn't educating students effectively.



Quote:

Austin ISD is spending $21,490 per student up 51.8% since 2015 even after inflation adjustment, ranking first among its 11 peer districts according to Texas Tribune and TEA data. It has 23 F-rated campuses. Its poor kids are reading and doing math at levels 7-10 percentage points below the already-inadequate state average for their peers. And its superintendent is telling families that outcomes are improving.


Quote:

Last June, the Austin ISD board of trustees adopted a budget carrying a $19.7 million deficit. This was not a surprise it was a deliberate choice to spend more than the district would collect, drawing down reserves. At the time, trustees were assured the gap would be managed through identified strategies including property sales and operational savings.

By March 2026 with three months left in the fiscal year that $19.7 million deficit had grown to $49 million on paper. But that $49 million figure only holds if $67.5 million in "Pending Strategies" and $16.9 million in "Unrealized Revenue" all materialize before June 30. Strip those out and the real operational deficit is closer to $134 million.

Compare that to Vandegrift High School in Leander ISD in West Austin. Leander ISD spends a little over $10k per student and they spend about $7800 per student at Vandegrift. This is for a school that is one of the top ranked schools in the state with a huge tax base yet they spend about 1/3rd of what Austin does for it. So the tax dollars from Vandegrift gets taken by Robin Hood policies so it can be set on fire by Austin. If there were better evidence that money has little to no relation to quality in education I can't think of one.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Ronald Reagan
Ag87H2O
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Democrats - doing less with more since ... forever.
Loren Visser
How long do you want to ignore this user?
The true measure of public education is how many kids you're converting to trans. So AISD is excellent
Sid Farkas
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Austin always wanted to be a little California. So now they've gone and done it.
Owlagdad
How long do you want to ignore this user?
But kids know more about non-binary than binomials!
Urban Ag
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
One of the primary reasons for the housing explosion in the 'burbs around Austin is that parents that work in Austin don't want their kids going to school there. AISD is a commie cesspool. Student enrollment continues to drop while the population of Austin/Travis Co continues to soar. Meanwhile student enrollment is Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Liberty Hill, Kyle, Buda, etc, continues to go up and up.

Austin just sucks across the board. When we moved here almost 26 years ago, it was weird, but it was fun and safe. Outside of having a date night at the Arboretum or Domain, we never go in to Austin for anything. Thank you toll system for making that a reality.
BadMoonRisin
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Keep this in mind when the teachers bring out their kids for protests who can barely read.
i'm sorry i dont laugh at the right times.
MelvinUdall
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.
stallion6
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
aggie93 said:

Austin ISD is the prime example of liberal "leadership" on education. They throw insane money at it and get worse and worse results because they never focus on real solutions that could fix the problems. This is what Democrat leadership gets you. The financial numbers are staggering the debt and hole they are in and they have horrific results to show for it. State needs to take over. All in a District that is filled with some of the highest value property in the state to tax and liberal voters that will give them anything. What in the hell do they spend the money on because it sure as hell isn't educating students effectively.



Quote:

Austin ISD is spending $21,490 per student up 51.8% since 2015 even after inflation adjustment, ranking first among its 11 peer districts according to Texas Tribune and TEA data. It has 23 F-rated campuses. Its poor kids are reading and doing math at levels 7-10 percentage points below the already-inadequate state average for their peers. And its superintendent is telling families that outcomes are improving.


Quote:

Last June, the Austin ISD board of trustees adopted a budget carrying a $19.7 million deficit. This was not a surprise it was a deliberate choice to spend more than the district would collect, drawing down reserves. At the time, trustees were assured the gap would be managed through identified strategies including property sales and operational savings.

By March 2026 with three months left in the fiscal year that $19.7 million deficit had grown to $49 million on paper. But that $49 million figure only holds if $67.5 million in "Pending Strategies" and $16.9 million in "Unrealized Revenue" all materialize before June 30. Strip those out and the real operational deficit is closer to $134 million.

Compare that to Vandegrift High School in Leander ISD in West Austin. Leander ISD spends a little over $10k per student and they spend about $7800 per student at Vandegrift. This is for a school that is one of the top ranked schools in the state with a huge tax base yet they spend about 1/3rd of what Austin does for it. So the tax dollars from Vandegrift gets taken by Robin Hood policies so it can be set on fire by Austin. If there were better evidence that money has little to no relation to quality in education I can't think of one.

Democrats prefer an uneducated base, combined with the emotional liberal woman. One cares about free stuff and the other just about their own feelings.
AnScAggie
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Owlagdad said:

But kids know more about non-binary than binomials!

Very underrated post!
Queso1
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Check out the fiasco in Fort Worth
AlexNguyen
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AISD serves a lot of poor (50.2% of enrollment), special ed (16.4%), and emerging bilingual (31.3%) students. Not sure what emerging means here, but I guess it means their household does not speak English as a primary language.

I am sure the low performance of the students owe in large part those factors. Solution? I have no clue, however I don't think it's a matter of not spending enough. I think AISD has plenty of resources already. They just need to spend it where it should be spent, and the public should know the schools won't perform well if they are educating kids that are far behind their peers in class.

https://www.austinisd.org/sites/default/files/dept/board/docs/scorecard/AISD_Student_Performance_Data.pdf
DallasAg 94
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Somewhat true.

If you care about your kid's education, you put them in schools that teach them.

White flight to the Burbs. Private school.

What gets left behind are poor kids whose parents can't move them.

We put our kids in private school. When I saw the school was passing a bond and it included $3M to replace a fence because they couldn't afford to hire a guy for $50k to repair the existing one... and spent $300M to completely replace their technolgy backbone: Switches, Routers, WiFi, and UCC, because the $25M for Support renewals could roll into the Bond, you got an idea of how the schools are run.

My sister laughed at us and kept her elementary aged kids in public FtW schools. She soon put them in private schools when she realized her daily volunteer help at the schools was not only unappreciated... nobody else helped.

In the private schools we sent our kids, there was so much parent help that you had to sign up early or the spots would fill up.

Add to the fact that schools no longer use textbooks, parents are unable to access information to help their kids. And public schools want parents isolated from their kids. Covid showed us why. In the 7 school years we had kids in public high school... I'm convinced they learned next to nothing.
F4GIB71
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Is t.u. included in that list?
F4GIB71
Unforgiven94
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
As a parent of three kids that moved out of Austin isd into Buda when my oldest finished elementary school, my experience was that the pandering to illiterate esl (both legal and illegal) students and the other usual suspects that don't give a crap about education was way over the top. there was no amount of money they weren't willing to flush down the toilet in the name of equity without results. I dont know anyone at work that is willing to put their kids into aisd schools. Those that have remained within the school district's boundaries have largely put their children into private schools or found ways to get them into westlake or other high performing public schools outside of AISD.

Owlagdad
How long do you want to ignore this user?
My mom and dad were dirt poor farm kids.
Came home and did chores just so they could eat and family survive.
They made good grades and made something of themselves.
I would tend to say hey had lots of fortitude!
But I can imagine in a debate with a liberal, the liberal would say they had privilege and said privilege was because they were white.
All the consequences for poor behavior in schools was due to liberalism. I can remember when over at the black school, the teachers used the board and they had good behavior. Liberals took away consequences to buy votes!
I often wonder if conservatives would have said, "hell no, we aren't going to move an hour from work, you people get with the program. ". Just recently Dallas ISD took corporal punishment out of their schools. I would like to see research of the before and after!
But cheap land in Spring, Conroe , Mesquite, Plano, Round Rock and developers more than willing to make it it easier to go try and make a life where schools were good and rules were followed. What was left in inner city were grifters who make a living with their hands out because the mess that was created is too big for them!
bobbranco
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Considering the quality graduates for the local college am I surprised?

AGinHI
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
MelvinUdall said:

I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.

That may have been true in a time long past, but not anymore. What is being taught in school is significantly less rigorous than any of the older generations would have experienced.

Before permanently yanking my daughter out of public school, albeit here in California, though a conservative "red" county, I observed teaching heavily focused on environmentalism, native Americans (i.e., indigenous Californians), learning about other cultures, and psuedo-psychology treatment (e.g., teaching my daughter that she is "stressed" when doing school work and taking a time out - literally teaching her to be anxious) while across the board student reading and math scores were below standard.

MelvinUdall
How long do you want to ignore this user?
DallasAg 94 said:

Somewhat true.

If you care about your kid's education, you put them in schools that teach them.

White flight to the Burbs. Private school.

What gets left behind are poor kids whose parents can't move them.

We put our kids in private school. When I saw the school was passing a bond and it included $3M to replace a fence because they couldn't afford to hire a guy for $50k to repair the existing one... and spent $300M to completely replace their technolgy backbone: Switches, Routers, WiFi, and UCC, because the $25M for Support renewals could roll into the Bond, you got an idea of how the schools are run.

My sister laughed at us and kept her elementary aged kids in public FtW schools. She soon put them in private schools when she realized her daily volunteer help at the schools was not only unappreciated... nobody else helped.

In the private schools we sent our kids, there was so much parent help that you had to sign up early or the spots would fill up.

Add to the fact that schools no longer use textbooks, parents are unable to access information to help their kids. And public schools want parents isolated from their kids. Covid showed us why. In the 7 school years we had kids in public high school... I'm convinced they learned next to nothing.


I grew up in a HS school that majority minority and I remember having good teachers, at least perceived…but I succeeded because my parents were on my a** daily about grades and school work…if my parents didn't care, I am not sure where I would be…this is why I lean on parents being the issue…parents wanting something more than they had.
MelvinUdall
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AGinHI said:

MelvinUdall said:

I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.

That may have been true in a time long past, but not anymore. What is being taught in school is significantly less rigorous than any of the older generations would have experienced.

Before permanently yanking my daughter out of public school, albeit here in California, though a conservative "red" county, I observed teaching heavily focused on environmentalism, native Americans (i.e., indigenous Californians), learning about other cultures, and psuedo-psychology treatment (e.g., teaching my daughter that she is "stressed" when doing school work and taking a time out - literally teaching her to be anxious) while across the board student reading and math scores were below standard.




That's fair, but speaking just to the reading, that is again something a parent can reinforce…work with them, have them read, etc…math is a whole other deal, I am good at math and could work with my kids up to a certain point and then I was out…clearly there are parents that aren't good at math, so that solely on the teacher.
Hardcore Greg
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Urban Ag said:

One of the primary reasons for the housing explosion in the 'burbs around Austin is that parents that work in Austin don't want their kids going to school there. AISD is a commie cesspool. Student enrollment continues to drop while the population of Austin/Travis Co continues to soar. Meanwhile student enrollment is Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Liberty Hill, Kyle, Buda, etc, continues to go up and up.

Austin just sucks across the board. When we moved here almost 26 years ago, it was weird, but it was fun and safe. Outside of having a date night at the Arboretum or Domain, we never go in to Austin for anything. Thank you toll system for making that a reality.


Wife (t.u. Grad) and I loved Austin when we first started dating from 2008-2010, before relocating to Houston. We went back for a little weekend trip in 2018 hoping to relive some nostalgia and could not believe how wildly different it was. She kept saying "where are the men". Every place we went was scooter riding soyboys. She kept commenting on how much more masculine men were in College Station.

The parts of downtown that used to be fun and somewhat upscale just seemed trashy. 6th street was more ghetto than ever. It was like the soul had been almost completely sucked from the city. Only area that still kind of felt the same was S Congress. Then there was the traffic. Felt every bit as bad as Houston, possibly worse.

Austin in the 90's and early 2000's was pretty sweet. I bet growing up there in the 70's, 80's or 90's would have been pretty awesome.
Science Denier
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
MelvinUdall said:

I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.


It's only a parent problem if the parent is a teacher. Teachers and their liberal ideas to ruin kids are the problem. Sending kids out of school protest is the prime example.
Science Denier
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
MelvinUdall said:

AGinHI said:

MelvinUdall said:

I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.

That may have been true in a time long past, but not anymore. What is being taught in school is significantly less rigorous than any of the older generations would have experienced.

Before permanently yanking my daughter out of public school, albeit here in California, though a conservative "red" county, I observed teaching heavily focused on environmentalism, native Americans (i.e., indigenous Californians), learning about other cultures, and psuedo-psychology treatment (e.g., teaching my daughter that she is "stressed" when doing school work and taking a time out - literally teaching her to be anxious) while across the board student reading and math scores were below standard.




That's fair, but speaking just to the reading, that is again something a parent can reinforce…work with them, have them read, etc…math is a whole other deal, I am good at math and could work with my kids up to a certain point and then I was out…clearly there are parents that aren't good at math, so that solely on the teacher.


lol. I get reinforcing, and that helps get kids from C's to A's. But when that many schools totally fail, that's on the school and the teachers.
AGinHI
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
MelvinUdall said:

AGinHI said:

MelvinUdall said:

I will continue to say that isn't a funding problem it is a parent problem…if there is no reinforcement at home on what is being taught at school, or parents just don't care, then the kids will fail….money doesn't equal results in education.

That may have been true in a time long past, but not anymore. What is being taught in school is significantly less rigorous than any of the older generations would have experienced.

Before permanently yanking my daughter out of public school, albeit here in California, though a conservative "red" county, I observed teaching heavily focused on environmentalism, native Americans (i.e., indigenous Californians), learning about other cultures, and psuedo-psychology treatment (e.g., teaching my daughter that she is "stressed" when doing school work and taking a time out - literally teaching her to be anxious) while across the board student reading and math scores were below standard.




That's fair, but speaking just to the reading, that is again something a parent can reinforce…work with them, have them read, etc…math is a whole other deal, I am good at math and could work with my kids up to a certain point and then I was out…clearly there are parents that aren't good at math, so that solely on the teacher.

And I concede your point about reading, though my wife ('99) and I spend hours every day with our daughter, enlisted additional help both within school and without (Kumon), but her school simply does not read; they are taught excerpts. Teachers read to them. Phonics is not taught. Spelling is not taught. I send her to school to be taught by "experts," people whose dedicated profession is teaching because I cannot do all of that to the extent required. In addition, she is Gen Alpha and missed her entire kindergarten year because of politicians' tyrannical and devious exploitation of Covid.
Bobaloo
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Old checking in….Graduated from a DallasISD school in the early 80s as did everyone in our neighborhood. The only kids who went to private schools were staunch Catholics and rich kids (Saint Marks). My graduating class was very diverse. Everyone got along famously (still do) and eventually had very successful careers. Fast forward to 2026. The school is 100% Hispanic with 100x the athletic and academic facilities that we had. The school excels at nothing. It is surrounded by $1 million plus houses which fly pride flags and will soon be littered with Talerico signs. The kids in those homes all (100%) go to private schools. Welcome to the liberal dream.

"Where liberalism flourishes misery follows." - Rush Limbaugh
‘This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing.’

George W. Bush
torrid
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
They can't read or write, but everyone child that wants gender-affirming care is getting it.
Trajan88
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Heard on talk radio about a week ago that NYC spends $40,000/student. I had no way to re-listen.

Please tell this is NOT true? If it is... 3/4 of that has to be going to admin. overhead, grift, and teacher union / pension / healthcare for retirees.
Science Denier
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
infinity ag
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Democrats ruin everything they touch. The results are proof.

But the big question is why do they have approximately 50% of the votes in America?? Does not compute. CA is full of homeless, and trash, but Dems keep coming back to power. Are people that dumb?
double aught
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Ag87H2O said:

Democrats - doing less with more since ... forever.
Republicans have run the state for 30+ years. There's plenty of blame to go around
Over_ed
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
My guess is the largest impediment to learning in public schools (outside of bad parenting) : SO MANY KIDS ARE ON INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLANS.

A teacher may have to manage more than half his/her class to plansm-each requiring documentation etc.. Plans do little to help the students - no plan cures bad discipline problems, truancy, not speaking English, etc., but plans do mean that teachers have no time to help students that are well behaved and want to learn.

HOME SCHOOL IS THE BEST SOLUTION for students in "urban" schools - if parents can't afford private school.
Science Denier
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
double aught said:

Ag87H2O said:

Democrats - doing less with more since ... forever.
Republicans have run the state for 30+ years. There's plenty of blame to go around


State doesn't run school districts unless the state is forced to take one over.

If the state ran the schools in this state, there would be less than 20 failing districts in the state, much less than over 20 in one ****ed Jo district.
AGinHI
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
infinity ag said:

Democrats ruin everything they touch. The results are proof.

But the big question is why do they have approximately 50% of the votes in America?? Does not compute. CA is full of homeless, and trash, but Dems keep coming back to power. Are people that dumb?

A quarter of California families receive welfare benefits, 37% receive public health insurance. Overall, if reporting is correct, a little over 40% of Californians receive at least one form of public assistance.

And then you have all of the wealthy liberals, far removed from the low-income people who they champion and the consequence of their political support, voting against themselves to feel altruistic and morally superior.
Ag87H2O
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
double aught said:

Ag87H2O said:

Democrats - doing less with more since ... forever.
Republicans have run the state for 30+ years. There's plenty of blame to go around
I can guarantee you Republicans have nothing to do with the failures in Austin ISD. A locally elected board runs the district, not state officials.

If Republican state officials take it over, they'll get it fixed.
DavysApprentice
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
This why I am so against Talrico. He represents the ideology that leads to these outcomes. He may seem nice and say the right things but this is what happens 100 percent of the time with democrats in charge
Last Page
Page 1 of 3
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.