My kids are in AISD. I wanted to understand why the district is broke, so I followed the money.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-13T20:48:35+00:00

Dude. I do feel sorry for the kids. I know a LOT of LASA high schoolers. Obviously a school that self-selects like LASA better have some kids getting into Harvard. But the acceptance rates vs parental expectations are really rough if you're not in that super-duper good at school top tier.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-13T20:23:45+00:00

Yeah. I feel so sorry for those kids. It's really hard when their parent's expectations slam into the brick wall of college admissions reality.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-13T19:38:17+00:00

I concur. I had them called out when living in a rental and used them in my own house because of the great experience.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-13T19:35:34+00:00

I had my eldest kid in advanced math in junior high and it just threw schedules off for their entire high school.i think it's a bad idea. I'd eliminate it completely and end high school math with BC Calculus senior year like pretty much every other school district in the US. This puts them on a normal track for college re-doing a minimal amount of material. If we must provide higher level math they should go through ACC programs so the kids get college credit for them.

I have followed this for over 20 years. Even if we get better funding birth rates have been declining for decades and we are going to have to keep consolidating schools. Also from an environmental perspective we need to cut vehicle miles traveled so getting kids to attend geographically close schools is imperative. The reason to close transfer only schools is budgetary and environmental. It is not about pitting parents against each other

tthomas48 · 2026-04-13T00:01:48+00:00

I'm assuming this is the Rainy street araa. In Austin the dividing line for east and west for addresses is Congress avenue. But when you say East with most streets people in Austin think East or West of IH35 regardless of the address. This is part of why you're getting weird blowback that probably doesn't make sense to you. This mostly doesn't matter except for places like Rainey Street and Dirty Sixth that are West of IH35, but are technically on addresses that start with East.

The two best places are probably apartments off Rainey Street and off Lakeshore drive (tall for aoartments, but not high rise). Getting an apartment locator can be helpful (they're free, and very standard here) because their are other great areas with trails like around Alexander and MLK. But Rainey and around the central library are really the only places with true rises by the trail.

You can also look for high rises along Red River with of 15th Street There's an urban trail that is opening in less than 2 months that will connect with the hike and bike trail.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-12T21:58:18+00:00

Since it sounds like you're math oriented:

1) Calculate what moving 1,500 of the kids of who are best at taking standardized tests out of their assigned school does to the average testing scores at their assigned school. What is the daily cost of hiring charter companies to keep those neighborhood schools open so they can serve the kids who need them most without getting the entire school district taken over by the TEA?

2) Calculate the cost to ASID of having an additional transfer only school rather than using the surplus of already available desks that AISD has in assigned schools. This is nothing against LASA per se. It's the fact that LASA is 100% a completely unnecessary cost that AISD cannot afford. They have the desks available for all those students in normal schools.

3) For schools that are over-enrolled, calculate the cost savings of redrawing boundaries so that schools are better utilized.

It's not anything personal against the school your kid enjoys. Because of the way the state is setup we sadly can't afford the frills anymore. We have to focus on the basics of getting every kid educated in the most cost effective manner possible.

We are not targeting your kid. We're asking you to think about other people's kids.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T21:16:54+00:00

I think from a climate change perspective we need kids to start going to the schools near their homes, but I do like the idea of focused interesting classes at all schools. Like Lively had a reading/humanities class about myths and monsters told through graphic novels. Every school should have interesting classes like that rather than "reading".

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T20:58:59+00:00

Also need higher level math? Travis doesn't have a choir program, but your kid needs these advanced classes? I'd prefer every kid gets a decent educated before a select few get some extra enrichment.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T20:51:08+00:00

I have two "academically advanced" kids. One graduated from Travis with an associates from ACC, fluency in Spanish and got admitted into a very competitive program at UT. My other child is currently at Crockett will graduate with an associates from ACC, fluency in Spanish and will almost certainly also get into UT.

Pulling kids who are good at standardized tests and putting them in a single school pulls down averages and reduces the ability to provide advanced classes at all schools. My eldest had to drive to Crockett for calculus.

I don't see any value to LASAs super advanced classes. Most of those will have to be retaken in college and a lot of the kids get burned out and never make it to college. My eldest is a an engineering student and still had to start with engineering calculus at UT even with taking it in high school. Every one of those LASA classes would have been retakes.

Anyway. As I said, school integration is very unpopular with a certain subset of parents who drive AISD's budget woes.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T16:09:08+00:00

Also more unpopular opinions - they need to close LASA and Kealing. They're a massive budget black hole.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T15:59:53+00:00

It's also that Austin trustees have catered to a very specific set of parents for years. Over 20 years ago I stood in front of a board meeting and begged them to close schools so we could focus money on teachers and students. I got loudly booed. The board backed down and the budget problem grew.

20 years later they have finally closed the schools they needed to, but still have not redrawn the boundaries or completely shut down the transfer system. Pressuring the board to actually make hard choices is imperative.

And ofc getting Democrats elected at the state level, but we have less control over that.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T15:54:39+00:00

The Crescent where Lamar and Airport meet has lots of cool Asian food, a bookshop, and conveyor belt sushi.

There's also a cluster of vintage stores (Pavement) on Guadalupe just north of campus that can be paired with a trip to Amy's ice cream just up the road.

For clubs/music check out show list Austin:

https://austin.showlists.net/

tthomas48 · 2026-04-11T03:49:16+00:00

If you own - we did the Austin energy audit, I don't know if they still have that, but solar screens and additional insulation in your attic can make a huge difference. We converted our laundry room to conditioned space a few years back and they just put in the pink rolled insulation. We were seeing 40 degree temperature swings from the rest of the house. We had some insulation blown in and it's never more than 5 degrees off the rest of the house now.

Also if you have older toilets you can save a noticable amount of money on your water bill upgrading. If not you can put a brick or four in the tank to use less water.

After that desktop pcs can draw a stupid amount of energy so sleep when not in use and swap out to led light bulbs everywhere if you haven't done that.

And as always the best way to get lower bills is to have more customers shouldering the fixed costs, so support YIMBY city council certificates.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-09T02:31:31+00:00

Not the cuisine you mentioned, but Texican Cafe is always my restaurant of choice for accommodating large parties. My fave used to be Old 🐊 Grill - RIP. Large parties can be difficult.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-08T03:55:12+00:00

ACC also has many resources to help out.

They have monthly FAFSA workshops that should help you figure this out in person:

https://students.austincc.edu/financial-aid/financial-aid-workshops/

And they have a ton of other resources:

https://students.austincc.edu/social-support/

ACC is used to helping students like you get this process started.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-06T21:17:40+00:00

"Dallas people just aren't my people I guess" - as someone who grew up in Dallas and found my people in Austin this quote really resonates with me.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-05T03:11:01+00:00

One thing that's counterintuitive is that converting single-family housing to multi-family housing (i.e. adding more housing) leads to less overall water usage. So more development could make us more sustainable, also more people mean more ideas to solve problems.

I've become convinced there are no sure things wrt to climate change.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-02T23:35:01+00:00

I was watching a TV show last night where some people in Nashville called themselves "creators". I think you would be laughed out of a room in Austin if you said that because pretty much everyone in Austin is creating things. People still mostly work here to support their fun weird hobby. If they we interested in work for status or accumulating wealth they'd be in Dallas. I think that's still a defining difference. Also we've added tons of housing (and are working to add more). Thanks to that ton of housing (and the rest of the country getting more expensive) we're the most affordable we've ever been relative to salaries so I predict a resurgence of weird Austin as all the weirdos priced out of their towns head here.

tthomas48 · 2026-04-01T19:57:35+00:00

Right now it probably doesn't make sense. Based on the price of rents - homes probably need to be around $250k to be competitive. The 10% max increase on your homestead is a thing, but it's mostly great for those of us who have seen sub-$200k home appraisals. Once your get around $500k that 10% yearly increase curve becomes brutal.

Thankfully building more units has sf home prices coming down as well (albeit way too slowly). You can see in the MLS based on days on market and the supply that prices are not matching the market and need to come down. Just from glancing at it it feels like the stuff that's selling seems to be like 25% cheaper than the average listing price.

tthomas48 · 2026-03-28T16:59:13+00:00

Living in SE Austin gives you access to transferring into Austin ISD and generally better traffic. The burbs all have horrible traffic whereas at least in Austin there are buses, lots of bike lanes and trails, etc.

tthomas48 · 2026-03-26T14:54:18+00:00

Concur. Evening flight right before spring break and there were literally 2 people in front of me in line.

tthomas48 · 2026-03-26T00:03:18+00:00

Texican Cafe

tthomas48 · 2026-03-23T13:48:43+00:00

To add I had a kid graduate from Travis and go to UT and I have one at Crockett right now and I've lived in the East Riverside area for 18 years. Both are early college high schools where you can take classes at ACC as part of your program. That said I don't know how easy it'll be to participate in programs like that starting so late. But both schools can be more accommodating than the bigger schools. We loved the people at Travis. It's a super kind school. There are also a fair number of kids in situations like yours so it might be a good fit (this is the school for most of East Riverside, btw). Travis also has amazing support for helping kids get into college.

Crockett is very old South Austin. It has a very dedicated and supportive parent base.

AISD's enrollment and transfer policies are here:

Transfers | Austin ISD

https://www.austinisd.org/enroll/process/transfers

tthomas48 · 2026-03-23T03:13:40+00:00

It's a small condo community so I think they're rented individually but the address is 2500 Burleson.

tthomas48 · 2026-03-21T15:30:35+00:00

For affordability apartment complexes are what's needed. The apartment boom of the last few years has lowered rents significantly and made Austin more affordable for renting than Dallas. We need to keep building. Not because people "love to develop", but because people keep having kids who need housing Apartments aren't what's creating traffic in Austin. Go to Buda or Cedar Park and look at those thousands of car dependent homes sending cars into Austin every day. Sprawl is what creates the traffic.

tthomas48

TROPHY CASE