Method
A public-record briefing, written by a neighbor.
SOLATX compiles public school-finance and Austin history documents so neighbors can see the difference between a structural gap and a one-year patch. It advocates for students: funded classrooms, working educators, and a school day that does not depend on zip code. It does not speak for Austin ISD or the State of Texas. It does not collect your mail to the board.
What this briefing covers
The numbered pages follow Texas school finance from the court cases through Austin’s map, the frozen allotment, recapture, and the 2026 budget. Quotes on the meetings page come from AISD’s own meeting videos: the on-screen subtitles at the bottom of the recording, saved as a written transcript of who said what, plus news coverage of the 2026 budget. On these pages, “Chapter 49” always means the Education Code.
None of this is a single switch. Recapture is real. The frozen allotment is real. A campus that still prints a B without being funded is real. Those things run together. This is not a Democratic or Republican briefing, and it is not a choice between blaming Austin and blaming the state. A letter grade does not make Chapter 49 fair. Chapter 49 does not invent the people who showed up. Knowing what is wrong is not the same as being the person who is right about all of it.
How numbers are treated
- Prefer the district or TEA table over a headline. If two official pages disagree (recapture 2021–22 and 2024–25 do), both figures stay on the money page.
- Round in stat cards ($715.5M) and keep exact dollars in tables ($715,523,373).
- Label adopted vs actual vs projected. FY2025–26 recapture here is adopted.
- Inflation-adjusted allotment figures come from named analyses (Every Texan, contemporaneous CPI write-ups), not from SOLATX inventing a deflator.
- Word counts from meeting transcripts are not findings.
What this site will not do
- No third-party analytics, ads, or trackers.
- No account system. Library drafts, if you save them, sit in this browser’s localStorage only.
- No personal owner name in the footer. Ownership is the public handle below.
What this briefing cannot do
Every major figure is meant to walk back to the sources list. A briefing can line up Edgewood, recapture, and a superintendent contract. It cannot index the allotment, repeal Chapter 49, or put neighbors in the same room. That work still belongs in public comment, in a board packet, and in the Legislature.
Who this is from
The owner went Austin ISD from kindergarten through 12th grade. A direct product of the district, writing as a neighbor with the papers in hand — not as a spokesperson for AISD or the State of Texas.
Ownership
© 2026 SOLATX. Owned by f33boatx. All rights reserved. Copyright and site ownership rest with f33boatx.