I live in Houston, and this is pretty inaccurate on a couple levels. The first one is that Houston ISD doesn't have a "west Austin contingent." I live in the Heights and Timbergrove/Oak Forest section of Houston, which is Central Houston, HISD, and homes that go from 500k to 1.5 million, at least these days. These are a lot of well-to-do families, votes blue, and widely despises Abbot and and TEA. There was no shortage of F Mike Miles yard signs anywhere around me. And by "no shortage" i mean every third house. HISD also encompasses River Oaks, West U/Rice Village, I believe Bellaire, which areas home prices blow Heights/Timbergrove out of the water. Now, do a lot of those kids go to private school? Yes. Are the expensive areas still somewhat protected even though they're within HISD? Yes. But you're talking about literally the richest areas in Houston that are within HISD. Lets not pretend these people are completely unaware of what's going on.
I think a takeover in Austin won't make any more or prolonged media attention than the fourth largest city in the United States did...because people are powerless to do anything about it.