Demographic shifts, charters draw down Austin school district enrollment

Enrollment in the Austin school district sits at 73,730 this year, dipping 1.2% from 2021 and continuing a decadelong trend of declining student population, according to recently released school data. To school leaders, the population drop means less state funding coming into the district, which has identified low teacher pay as an employee retention setback and has long argued the state's school finance system takes too much from Austin. This year's student population — taken on Oct. 28 as part of the district's annual snapshot day — is 872 students lower than the 74,602 that were enrolled at the same time last year, according to district data. It's not the trend district officials want to see, said Katie Casstevens, interim executive director of student enrollment and attendance.

"It definitely does matter," Casstevens said. "Our enrollment has been declining for the last 10 years, potentially more. Since the bulk of our funding does come from enrollment allotments from the state, but also attendance, the less student we have, the less funding we get." Numerous factors, including affordability, play into the declining enrollment, Casstevens said. "It's getting more expensive to both live in Austin, but also to raise a family in Austin," Casstevens said. The median home price is $525,000 in the Austin metro area, compared with $190,000 at the same point in 2011, a 176.3% jump, according to recent data from the Texas A&M University Real Estate Research Center. Median family income over the same time period has only increased 47.3%, from $74,900 to $110,300, according to the data. That leads to families moving out of the district. The number of children under 18 only grew by 11.7% in Travis County between 2010 and 2020. During the same time, surrounding counties experienced much higher growth rates among child populations: 24.4% in Bastrop County, 28.4% in Williamson County and 43.3% in Hays County, according to data from the city of Austin.