(The Center Square) – Austin Independent School District could be the next public school district taken over by the Texas Education Agency.
TEA notified the district that its application for Texas Partnership benefits was denied because three of its middle schools had received failing grades for four out of the last six school years, with two school years not rated because of COVID-era lockdowns.
State law requires TEA to take over failing school districts after a campus receives failing academic ratings for at least five consecutive years. In each case, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has chosen to replace failing schools’ superintendents and school boards.
In 2017, the state Legislature created “1882 Partnerships” to incentivize districts to contract with open-enrollment charter schools, institutions of higher education, nonprofits or government entities to improve student outcomes. The program provides additional state funds to the districts and allows for a two-year exemption from certain accountability measures tied to school rankings. Partnering schools are required to be in good standing with TEA, including not having had their charter revoked or unacceptable academic ratings.
Austin ISD requested a partnership approval for three years for three middle schools – Burnet, Dobie and Webb – and the Texas Council for International Studies. The hope was that TCIS could help taxpayer-funded public schools do what its superintendent, school board and teachers couldn’t: Improve student outcomes.
All three middle schools received F ratings for the 2018-2019, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 school years. If they receive an F rating for the 2025-2026 school year, which ended in May, state law requires the schools to be taken over by the state.
The district was seeking approval for a “turn-around partnership” to hopefully end nearly 10 years of failing grades. However, TEA told Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura that TCIS only met two of three criteria TEA requires and raised concerns about its success rate. Of the 16 campuses TCIS had managed across three districts since the 2019-2020 school year, TEA found only five received D or F ratings “indicating limited turnaround school experience.”
Worse still, only five campuses improved their rating after having entered into a partnership with TCIS, the Texas Education Agency noted. TCIS “has failed to demonstrate a track record of managing campuses to academic success or a track record of significantly improving the academic performance of campuses,” it said.
Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura hoped the TCIS partnership would improve failing student outcomes from an F to at least a D. He told Austin-based NBC affiliate KXAN-TV that after looking at grades from the middle of the year, the schools could “get Ds or even better.” He also said that if the partnership application had been approved, it would have given the schools a two-year reprieve from negative ratings.
Rather than making improvements through teaching or other measures, which Segura acknowledged the district had not been able to do, the district looked for an outside partnership. hoping this would improve outcomes.
At the same time, property taxes increased, the district is facing a $181 million budget deficit for the 2026-2027 school year and is closing 10 schools.
Segura’s base pay is $362,000, up from $325,629 in 2024, according to public records. In 2024, his salary “was 461 percent higher than the average and 447 percent higher than the median salary in Austin Independent School District,” GovSalaries notes.
Even though TEA denied partnership benefits — meaning no exemptions from failed ratings or additional state funds — Austin ISD and TCIS could proceed with a partnership contract, TEA said. TEA also requested additional information be submitted.
Segura told parents the decision was “disappointing” and “not the end of the process.” He said partnering with TCIS was to ensure that Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle school students “get the exceptional academic support they deserve. We chose this path because we remain entirely confident in TCIS’s proven ability to lift student outcomes.
“We look forward to sharing additional details with TEA that reinforce our certainty that TCIS has the experience and capacity required to meaningfully improve student outcomes at these three schools,” Segura said.
Between 1991 and 2023, Texas took over 15 school districts, KHOU-11 News in Houston reported.
The most recent include the largest district in the state, Houston ISD, which was taken over in 2023. Within two years, and for the first time since the state ratings began, no Houston school has received an F grade, and more than 750 schools moved to an A grade last year, The Center Square reported.
The state took over La Joya ISD in February 2024 and South San Antonio ISD in February 2025. It also took over Fort Worth ISD last October and Beaumont ISD, Lake Worth ISD and Connally ISD last December, The Center Square reported.
Both Houston ISD and La Joya ISD were investigated by TEA and law enforcement for corruption, extortion, kickbacks, bribery, fraud and other crimes. School board members were convicted of a range of felonies.
