Close to midnight on June 18, after almost seven hours of public hearing and debate, Austin ISD trustees voted to adopt the proposed $887 million budget for the 2026-2027 school year with one amendment: that every school in the district will now keep a full-time librarian.
AISD faced a $181 million budget deficit projection and the task to get that number to zero in next school year’s budget by the state’s end-of-month deadline. The consequence of not passing a balanced budget could be state takeover and loss of locally elected control.
The long list of painful cuts that followed include closing 11 schools, eliminating over 550 positions across the district, increasing some class sizes, halving some teachers’ planning time, cutting bilingual and special education stipends, defunding Communities in School at some campuses, and ending neighborhood bus transportation for middle and high schoolers in favor of centralized “hub” stops, reducing 46.5 bus driver positions…