Though the city’s population has grown speedily, the district is seeing fewer and fewer students enrolled. Enrollment has dropped by more than 8,000 students since 2013, according to data presented by Alejandro Delgado, executive director of student enrollment in the district.
Because funding for the district is based on enrollment and the state recapture—locally collected tax revenue from school districts with high property values—Austin ISD continues to pay locally collected tax revenue to the state while losing funding due to low enrollment, Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said.
“I think the system was designed with right intent,” Elizalde said. “But like many things in actual practice, it’s not creating the outcomes it was intended to do.”
Elizalde said the intended purpose of recapture is to benefit school districts with low-income families, but Austin ISD—despite being in an area with high property values—is still a district with more than 50% economically disadvantaged students, Elizalde said.
Part of the enrollment problem has been a relatively low birth rate, Delgado said. Also, fewer families who are in the district are enrolling in Austin ISD schools, according to data Delgado presented. Many students are going to charter schools. Delgado presented data showing peer districts in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and elsewhere in the state are seeing similar trends in enrollment.
Since the first day of school Aug. 17, Austin ISD has lost more than 3,000 students, Delgado said. In the 2021-22 school year, the district also regained 2,000 students who previously left the district.
Trustee Lynn Boswell said the low number of young children in the district concerned her greatly. Boswell said she worries Austin will “become a San Francisco,” where the cost of living is so high that only very wealthy young parents can afford to live in the city.
Delgado said the district needs to focus on increasing schools' social media presence to compete with private and charter school ads. More importantly, he said, the district should focus on developing relationships with families without applying pressure to register or enroll, through events where parents can meet principals and Austin ISD representatives going door to door for introductions with parents.
