AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Austin Independent School District is the latest large\u00a0school\u00a0district in Texas now set to close schools. The move would affect nearly all of its students. Experts say it\u2019s part of a statewide trend driven by declining enrollment and funding challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The announcements are becoming more frequent since San Antonio ISD surprised the state in 2023, saying it would close 15 schools Kirk Faulkner is a sixth\u00a0grader at Austin ISD, and he hopes to pause the newly announced\u00a0consolidation plan. He graduated from Becker Elementary last year, which under the proposed plan would shut down.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0have two younger siblings that go to Becker. I\u2019m helping them do this with my parents,\u201d Kirk explains.<\/p>\n The Faulkner family is joining hundreds of thousands of families statewide facing the loss of their local schools, as districts large and small close or consolidate campuses.<\/p>\n The announcements are becoming more frequent since San Antonio ISD surprised the state in 2023, saying it would close 15 schools. Earlier this year, Plano ISD shuttered four schools, and Fort Worth ISD plans to close 18.<\/p>\n Austin ISD\u2019s draft plan would close 13 schools and rezone students to other campuses in what the school board says is an effort to improve the use of resources\u00a0and reduce costs. The superintendent said at a meeting last week that they have no choice but to consolidate.<\/p>\n At Thursday\u2019s board meeting, Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura explained the district \u201ccan\u2019t operate the way that we\u2019re operating and continue to to have the ability to support all of our students everywhere in Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n School boards and experts blame the combination of reduced enrollment, more charter schools and budget cuts for the closures. Department of Educational Leadership and Policy professor at the University of Texas at Austin David DeMatthews\u00a0says charter school expansions, declining birth rates and the state\u2019s \u201cRobin Hood\u201d funding program are all putting pressure on districts.<\/p>\n \u201cYou put all these things together, plus some of the struggling campuses…that also raises concern for families,\u201d says DeMatthews.<\/p>\n Parents feel the process lacks transparency and are hoping to get their questions answered during virtual open houses this week<\/a>. For more information about these meetings, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Austin Independent School District is the latest large\u00a0school\u00a0district in Texas now set to close…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5175,836,5176,834,132,134,133,1570,163,223,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-4906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-abigail-vaerewyck","tag-app-education","tag-app-latest-education-stories","tag-app-nested-news","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ctv","tag-education","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906","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=4906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Earlier this year, Plano ISD shuttered four schools, and Fort Worth ISD plans to close 18
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Austin ISD\u2019s draft plan would close 13 schools and rezone students to other campuses in what the school board says is an effort to improve the use of resources\u00a0and reduce costs
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Parents feel the process lacks transparency and are hoping to get their questions answered during\u00a0virtual open houses this week<\/a><\/p>\n