{"id":363548,"date":"2026-07-07T03:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/363548\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T03:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:56:10","slug":"how-much-attrition-will-austin-isd-lose-to-school-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/363548\/","title":{"rendered":"How much attrition will Austin ISD lose to school vouchers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 With the first funds for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts that rolled out last week, how many students can the Austin Independent School District expect to lose to school vouchers?<\/p>\n

Coupled with a $181 million budget deficit, vouchers pose another potential obstacle to the district as it tries to get its finances in order.<\/p>\n

David DeMatthews, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at UT Austin’s College of Education, says student enrollment as a direct result of vouchers probably won’t be stark.<\/p>\n

However, he says it only takes a few students leaving for schools to notice the effects of lost funding.<\/p>\n

“Just because a public school loses a student doesn’t mean that the public school then spends less money,” he said. “Imagine it this way: if you’re in an elementary school and just one student leaves each of the grades K through 5… you still need the same amount of teachers, which is the biggest kind of expenditure in a school, but there’s only one less student in each grade. If each of those kids cost roughly $10,000, you’re short about the pay of one actual teacher.”<\/p>\n

The Texas Legislative Budget Board estimated that Texas public schools stand to lose $250 million in the first year of the voucher program alone. DeMatthews says vouchers are not the sole culprit for budget deficits, but merely one part of the equation.<\/p>\n

“There are declining birth rates. There’s been a rise in charter schools opening up. There are demographic shifts in our city. So for all of these reasons, public schools are losing enrollment and therefore losing funding, while the state hasn’t increased funding in any significant way,” he said. “To add vouchers on top of that, it’s almost like the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” <\/p>\n

ALSO | Austin ISD delays most school boundary changes amid focus on budget, academics<\/a><\/p>\n

KEYE<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

CBS Austin reached out to Austin ISD to ask how much attrition they are expecting\u2014due to vouchers or otherwise.<\/p>\n

The district did not provide an exact figure but stated in a statement that the budget passed for the 2026-27 school year reflects approximately 1,200 fewer enrolled students than last school year. The district said that estimate is a “conservative” number.<\/p>\n

Regarding their consideration of school vouchers, AISD wrote,<\/p>\n

Taking into consideration the rollout of the state\u2019s new Education Freedom Accounts and factoring a potential decline into our multi-year planning is the only fiscally responsible approach to protecting district resources, ensuring stability, and building back our fund balance amidst ongoing state funding challenges.<\/p>\n

When asked about weighing other options in light of the voucher program and the district’s financial challenges, parent Nory Boulton said her three kids will stay in AISD. <\/p>\n

“As a parent, it just feels like we’re trapped because our schools are closing…” she said. “But what am I supposed to do? I can’t afford private school. Even if I had the voucher, I would still have to come up with $90,000 for my three children, and the charter schools aren’t going to offer the accommodations and the interventions that he needs.”<\/p>\n

Boulton’s son has dyslexia, and she says public schools are the only type legally obligated to accommodate his needs.<\/p>\n

“I taught at a private school, and I understand that private schools might promise you a lot, but without that legal obligation, they don’t have to deliver,” she said.<\/p>\n

Austin ISD won’t see the full effects of attrition until enrollment is finalized this fall, but DeMatthews says the district should brace for the impact. <\/p>\n

“Even if it’s not a large amount of students, it’s just another funding deficit that public schools are left to deal with, and it’s only going to hurt kids and families in those communities,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 With the first funds for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts that rolled out last week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-363548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}