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Texas Jeff

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  1. Are we talking about Austin's plan to build a subway to the airport? Some fun facts: The City of Austin collects your tax money and gives it to Austin Transit Partnership, which is not governed by the city. Some city council members are also ATP board members. ATP now has 87 employees who split $16.1 million per year, or an average taxpayer cost per employee of $185,057. The median base salary of an ATP employee is up to $143,520. Over the last year, the cost estimate for the rail portion has risen from $4.8 billion to $7.1 billion, however this rise mostly reflects a change from 2022 dollars to 2033 dollars. They expect to break ground on the rail in 2027 and expect trains to roll in 2033. Expect to be disappointed. They are getting sued by folks that think that Project Connect promised a downtown subway with surface rail to the airport, and 20 miles of rather than 10. They got these ideas from the original Project Connect promotional pitch prior to the vote, which showed a downtown subway, rail to the airport, and 20 miles of track rather than 10. They are getting close to opening two new bus rapid transit lines. They got a federal match for those and they are very cheap compared to rail. Cap Metro is getting 26 miles of BRT for under $100 million with more than half of that paid for by the feds. Compare that with 10 miles of rail at a cost of maybe $5 billion in today's dollars. The two BRT lines are delayed because they want to use only electric buses and they are having trouble getting the buses and are figuring out how to keep them charged. Also, compare the BRT development timeframe (about five years even with the electric buses) with rail (13 years if it opens in 2033). For now, you'll have to wait if you want to take transit from the UT campus through downtown and on to the airport .... unless you hop on the #20 bus, which goes exactly down this route, is available now, arrives every 15 minutes, and costs $1.25 to ride. More info here: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2023/09/21/austin-transit-partnership-budget-oks-190m-fiscal-year-2024/70913560007/ https://communityimpact.com/austin/south-central-austin/transportation/2024/03/25/71b-project-connect-light-rail-to-break-ground-in-2027/
  2. No idea. Here's a pic from a reddit post of the ruins from 1908 and 2020. The post contains a clue: "Very close to Barton Springs. Just a few hundred feet upstream. You can see it if you walk down to the creek next to the greenbelt trailhead."
  3. There was an original bridge over Barton Creek that I think connected Bee Cave Rd through Zilker to Lamar in the 1870-1900 timeframe: I have thought about taking a hike to find the foundations of the bridge, which I think are still visible from the trail through Zilker, but I've never done it.
  4. Austin ISD's budget is in bad shape, although IMHO the admin is doing the best they can with the constraints they have. Austin ISD thought that their deficit for next year was going to be around $60 million, and they had a goal of cutting $30 million without touching classroom spending to get to a $30 million deficit for next year. Attendance was less than projected and home values did not go up as much as planned. They are now an additional $30 million in the hole ... so even with the admin cuts they are looking at a possible $60 million shortfall. Once solution to this is to ask the voters to up the tax rate to close the gap. They can, with voter approval, raise taxes by 9.1 cents -- this is called a VATRE tax election. 0.1 of these cents are "golden" pennies, meaning that the district gets to keep all of the money. 9.0 cents of these are copper pennies, which are subject to recapture. At Austin ISD's recapture rate, 75% of the copper penny funds will go to the state, and the district will keep 25% of the taxes raised. The state currently has a surplus, so these "extra" Robin Hood funds won't go towards education, they will just make the surplus larger. Austin ISD would get to keep about $41 million of the new tax revenue. From that bucket, Austin ISD teachers and librarians would get about $15 million and district would spend about $25 million on other stuff (individual specialists, registrars, reducing the deficit). The state of Texas would get about $120 million. Austin voters will probably have a chance to vote for or against this tax at the November election. The district can't deficit spend forever. Within a few years, their fund balance will hit a critically low level and there will be no more savings to spend. Without legislative action, they are turbo-screwed at that point, even if the new VATRE tax passes. Also, Austin ISD is currently under a TEA monitorship because of past problems with special education evaluations. As part of their punishment, the trustees had to agree to a "Lone Star Governance" TEA-approved process. Part of this process mandates that the board can only spend 50% of their time talking about issues that do not relate to student outcomes. The budget is a non-student outcome issue. So if they want to talk about the budget for an hour, they have to also talk about "student outcomes" for an hour. Talking about student outcomes is great, but at some point in the year you have to buckle down and talk about the friggin' budget for a few days -- and the board has to be very careful to not violate their agreement with TEA to avoid a state takeover.
  5. A word of caution when looking at school ratings .... COVID caused school ratings to be all over the map and probably inflated scores. I don't understand 100% of the system, but here's the basic idea: The state ranks schools in a set of categories. Pre-COVID, they averaged all categories to get a rating for the school. School ratings were averaged to get a rating for the district. So a school could get a F, D, C, B, A in five categories and that would average to a C. During COVID, "bad" grades were changed to "not rated". So those same ratings could have changed to NR, NR, C, B, A during COVID for an average of B. Now, post-COVID, the NR's are being changed back to what they were before so a F, D, C, B, A school is back to a C average. In extreme cases, schools got a F, F, F, F, A before the pandemic for an F rating, then during COVID got all NR's and one A ... which gave them an "A" rating, and are now back to F, F, F, F, A post-COVID for a brand new "F" rating. Give it a few years to stabilize but I would not trust any school rating during the pandemic to reflect the real state of a school. I have seen test scores which show that eco dis populations were really hit hard by COVID and are struggling to recover.
  6. Fair enough but I was actually thinking good for all of the plants and creatures on the planet, not just humans. Forests, whales, bison, whatever. Too many of us is not great for them.
  7. 1960 - three billion people 2023 - eight billion people The planet really didn't need an extra five billion of us. We obviously shouldn't kill people but a long term slow reduction through slower birth rates is probably good for the planet.
  8. McCallum sounds better than the other AISD bands because the district has designated them as a magnet, so they get transfers for Fine Arts. Bowie sounds louder than the other AISD bands because they have 700 more kids than many of the other schools, and in some cases 2000 more kids. Austin High, Anderson and LASA also have good band programs, they just aren't fine arts magnets or larger schools. At McCallum or Bowie, your somewhat talented kid may find themselves in a lower band or chair because the really talented kids are beating them out. At Austin High, Anderson, or LASA, your kid may be challenged to take a solo or sit first chair. My kids were at Austin High and I often saw kids respond to a challenge by working harder and leveling up. Not just musically. We put kids in charge of trailer crew or game day prep or other leadership positions and watched them mature into the role. The Austin High band programs are double blocked, so the kids see each other every day and band becomes their high school community. If you really want to put your kids in the most award winning bands, McCallum and Bowie and the other AISD bands lose out to Leander, just like the rest of the state. Leander has some structural reasons why they are doing well and AISD doesn't have their advantages. AISD is taking steps, with new instruments and putting turf practice fields on campuses, but they are a generation behind the suburbs. AISD has been lazy, IMHO, by designating magnet schools, and then saying "hey look, wow, they are better than the other schools we have, what a great job we are doing." McCallum and Bowie get the spotlight within AISD, but there are other programs that may be great for your kid and shouldn't be overlooked.
  9. I can add a little more .. what you said is pretty much correct... The College Board supplies the AP content and the exam at the end of the course. The teacher can be straight out of school and needs no special training, but usually they are interest in the subject. The College Board recommends, but does not require, that the teacher have a bachelor's degree in the subject. Students learn the material and spent time taking practice exams to get ready for the test. The test costs about $100 if you are not low income and maybe $20 if you are low income. Students who take the test get a score from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). Generally, 3 is a passing score to get credit. Each college has a list of what tests they accept and what score gets you credit for what class. You are not guaranteed to get credit for a class. Some students collect lots of AP credits so that they can max out their college application. Dual credit is usually a community college class (like ACC) or something like UT OnRamps (UT's dual credit offering). The students usually take them in a high school classroom and get "dual credit" for the class, meaning it counts for high school and college. You take the class and you get a grade in the class, credit in the class, and it is on your college transcript for that school. Texas requires universities to accept credit classes taught in Texas and has a standard naming structure for them, so they are easy to transfer. At our kids' school, sometimes the AP teacher was considered "best" and sometimes a dual credit teacher was "better", so ours ended up with a mix of AP and dual credit. The US News "Best schools" list gives a lot of weight to schools that have a high percentage attempt or pass AP tests. You can collect "smart" kids at a magnet and/or max out AP participation and almost guarantee that school will have a high ranking. Do the same with dual credit and your school goes down the list.
  10. It's pretty much that simple, according to the book "Empty Planet". Birth rates decline as women gain access to education and birth control.
  11. If they made the movie today it would be called "Put Down Your Phone We Are Late For Your Soccer Game"
  12. DJT will go to zero, give it time. I worked for a startup for a while. I joined after the IPO and stock crash. We had an actual product and revenue, but an unclear product roadmap. The stock IPOed around 18 and zoomed up to 200. At that point every employee was a millionaire on paper. Six months later, the day I interviewed, the stock was at 51 cents a share. Everyone's options were underwater. The founder and a few early employees made millions. I got a lot of options at the lower price, so I figured it might work out. It did not. My interview was the standard "talk to six people for an hour each" format. One interviewer walked in, said "You want to work here? Sure, whatever..." and walked out.
  13. Austin says "Those are rookie numbers".
  14. Travis County now out. I'm down 17% after being up 90% two years ago. It must be nice to be a county appraiser and just throw random numbers at the wall for a living.
  15. McCallum talk not going away... Here's the latest presentation showing what they are planning (starts around slide 12).
  16. Austin ISD offers at least three ways to get college credit, maybe more. Most are free or cheap and cover the basics for a kid's first year or two of college. Students can take AP classes, and then take the AP test, and maybe get credit if a college offers credit. Austin ISD provides the AP teachers and the class, and the student signs up for the test. The test is $98, but economically disadvantaged kids pay around $21. Students can take ACC dual-credit classes, where the student is enrolled at ACC and high school in the same class. Most of the "ACC" teachers for this are actually Austin ISD high school teachers with the credentials to teach at ACC. The student ends up with high school credit and ACC credit, and the ACC credit can usually transfer elsewhere. I think public schools in Texas are required to accept the credit. Students can take UT On-Ramps classes, where the student is enrolled at UT and the school. UT provides the curriculum. The student ends up with UT credit. It's like ACC dual credit but the kid earns UT class credit using UT content. The district has a number of "early college" high schools, which are mostly the schools with the highest percentage of low economic students. At these schools, students can earn an associate's degree from ACC while still in high school, leaving them with just two years left to complete a degree. Eastside Memorial is across the street from an ACC campus. I think ACC classes are already free for kids in high school, but I can't remember for sure. There's no reason why an Austin ISD student can't knock out most of their freshman year and a big chunk of their sophomore year at almost no cost. The district also has a fire academy, cooking schools, nursing training and bunch of other CTE stuff for kids that are not college bound.
  17. I was near the Georgia border for the last eclipse. Getting to a spot was easy. After it was over, we had about ten minutes before gridlock started. Waze saved us and it routed us some very weird ways, but we kept moving. I had planned a three hour buffer at the Atlanta airport and I ended up walking right on the plane when I got to the gate, but I made it. So when it’s over, get moving as soon as you can, get as far as you can before the rush and have a plan. Or … just be prepared to wait.
  18. I'm sure you know this but I wanted to remind everyone that the way the school gets money is to have students in class. The school has to pay for the teacher, the building, the admin, the custodians ... everyone who keeps the school open. If you miss five class days to go to Hawaii, the school does not make revenue for those days to pay everyone who works there. Each family taking a few days off across the district adds up to a ton of lost revenue. Lots of us donate to our schools above and beyond what is asked, but if you are going to go on vacation and miss school, you might consider asking them what their daily revenue per student is and cutting them a check, just to make up for not being there.
  19. Nobody and I mean nobody wanted Steve Adler in charge.
  20. Well, you can "eyeball" it if you wish... I was surprised with the amount of glare from the sun during the 2017 eclipse, and how dark it didn't get. More like dim. It was tough to tell exactly when it was safe to look, or when the sun was going to suddenly come back. The app gives you some kind of assurance that you are in totality. I waited until the app said I could look, counted to ten, then looked without glasses. I put my glasses back on about ten seconds before the app said it was over. I am paranoid about retina damage, especially for kids who will need their retinas a lot longer than I will.
  21. Consider getting an eclipse app for your phone and practicing beforehand. I just re-downloaded Solar Eclipse Timer that I used in 2017. It's not free but it's not that much: https://www.solareclipsetimer.com/ It uses your GPS location to calculate exactly when the eclipse is starting and stopping and plays some recorded messages during the eclipse to remind you when to look around. I'm not associated with the person developing this app, it's just the one I picked. It's nice to have something to tell you when exactly the eclipse is at 100%, and when it's over.
  22. We used More Than A Teacher in Westlake over a summer and it worked well for us. They have a few locations and they also do some prep classes on campuses. The most useful part of their program was being able to sit for unlimited practice tests. I'm not sure if they still do this or not. We my kids did it, once you had paid the tuition, you could sign up for as many practice tests as you wanted. Simulated "real world" conditions helped my kids get used to the timing and pacing.
  23. In the video, it looks like the ship had a bunch of lights turn off for maybe 30 seconds or so about a minute before impact. Almost like they lost power, then got it back.
  24. A marching snare drum. Anytime the rest of the entire marching band is not playing. STFU snares, everyone else is trying to be social.
  25. I think the census folks take an American Community Survey every year, which is like a light census using sampling rather than a full enumeration. I got one once and sent it in.
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