Press

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Our founder's work and words, as covered by the press.

Austin ISD approves plan to close 10 schools after hours of public comment

KUT News

November 21st, 2025

"There wasn't dialogue in between dropping something on folks. Even if there's all the good thinking in the world, folks got to be at the table, walking through it, talking through it. So going forward, where is the insertion of family voice at the table?"

Austin ISD consolidation plan could mean cuts to student programs

KVUE ABC

October 6th, 2025

"Learning the English language is a necessity, and we have students who haven't had a bilingual-certified teacher in front of them. [With the consolidations] You are getting the programming, the leadership, and you're working with more kids who are coming from a wider range of backgrounds."

Austin ISD audit looks at possible school consolidation

KVUE ABC

March 28th, 2025

"Yes, we want to be more efficient, but we don't want to be – and can't afford to be – less effective.”

As voters weigh higher tax rate for Austin public schools group of former trustees raise concerns

KUT News

October 25th, 2024

"Voter Approval Tax Rate Election (VATRE) is more than just a local ballot measure. It is a reflection of the ongoing challenges in Texas' school finance system and the difficult choices facing school districts across the state. I want voters to wrestle with that so that I can know as a trustee, that I am representing Austin and Austin's values."

Austin Chamber of Commerce endorses AISD Proposition A to help budget shortfall

KVUE ABC

October 14th, 2024

"We are in an abusive relationship with the state and when you are in an abusive relationship, at some point, you have to say no and you have to stop."

Austin ISD is asking voters to approve a new tax rate to help fund pay raises, reduce deficit

The Austin Chronicle

August 20th, 2024

“When we vote for this tax rate election, what we are voting to do is to fill the coffers of the state to do things that don’t serve us,”

Austin ISD Budget Shortfall Could Put School Closures on the Table

The Austin Chronicle

June 7th, 2024

“We provide free education, and it costs money. That’s just what it is. That’s the social contract. And our communities are better for it. So the idea of, ‘well, it costs too much’ – that’s not the proposition. The better approach is in the form of a question: ‘What does it cost to provide an excellent education for a child and how best can we get there?"

How Texas’ School Funding Scheme Contributed to Austin ISD’s Massive Budget Shortfall

Austin Chronicle

May 23rd, 2024

"We are living under a crisis 100% manufactured by the state. We have enough money to run two school districts this size, if the state didn’t rob us."

Leaders in education community come together to celebrate Black influence on Austin education

Daily Texan

February 8th, 2024

"Black excellence is going to require that we have teachers [who] are able to teach Black children excellently. We’re not there yet.”

Austin ISD hires first homegrown superintendent in district history

Fox 7 Austin

January 27th, 2024

"I'll just say that I have full confidence. This is joyous because this is one of the strongest and best hires that I have been a part of in my entire career, and I feel good about where we're going, and I'm ready to get to work."

Austin ISD agrees to Texas’ alternative plan to monitor its special education department

Texas Standard

September 28th, 2023

"It’s a local matter with national implications because it’s happening all over the nation, where folks don’t like school boards,” he said. “And when I say folk, I’m not talking about everyday folk that voted us into office. I’m talking about folks who are operating in narrow, elite … halls at the state and federal levels."

Austin ISD board accepts TEA agreement that places monitors over special education department

CBS Austin

September 27th, 2023

“Monitoring would be fine, if that's where the agreement stopped, but the agreement for me crosses a sort of threshold into a matter of the erosion of local control,”

Austin ISD's consideration to add more armed SROs than required stirs up debate

KVUE ABC

August 11th, 2023

"I would fully expect that we move with all deliberate speed, which is to say that we're hiring folks with the right disposition. That we, in no ways, sacrifice any of our training, specifically. Providing the training to see that they have a caring relationship with our kids and with our community,"

District Reforms PTA Funding Role

Austin ISD

May 21st, 2021

"I’m of the opinion that when it came to the issue of this PTA funding, we can talk and talk and talk, [but] Austin is out of step with the state and the nation. We know that good-hearted folk, providing funds in this way…it accelerates inequities because it perpetuates the ecosystem."

Racial equality: Building a better Austin | A two-night KVUE special

KVUE ABC

September 21st, 2020

"A lot of people that just don't want to be involved, all of a sudden see these horrific images of fire hoses on people, you know, these marchers dressed really nicely, just getting abused, dogs attacking. And again, people go, 'OK, OK, that's, that's enough. We need to do something about this,"

Are Austin School Shutterings Racially Motivated?

Austin Monthly

March 1st , 2020

"Austin didn’t have open racial terrorism or violence like Black Wall Street or massive lynchings, like other parts of Texas. But, on the other hand, it has been a sort of death by a thousand policy cuts. Privileged interests have always squeezed out and harmed marginalized communities and schools."