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Travis County · Texas

Austin, TX public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Austin Isd — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Austin Isd is the primary public district for Austin, TX. It enrolls 73,384 students in 124 schools with 4,433 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $26,732 per pupil, 54% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
73,384NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
124Operating school count
Students per teacher
16.6Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$26,732Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Austin

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
87.8%
$1,434,897,000
State revenue
4.7%
$77,552,000
Federal revenue
7.4%
$121,605,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Austin property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 25 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Austin numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

$26,732 per pupil puts this district in the top spending tier of the metros tracked here — 54% above the $17,320 median and higher than 88% of them. Only 25 cents of each dollar ($6,651 per student) is classified as instruction, so a large share goes to support services, facilities and transport — common in districts with long bus routes or older buildings.

Money is raised locally: 87.8% of revenue comes from local sources — overwhelmingly property tax — against 4.7% from the state. That makes the district's budget move with Austin property values and levy votes rather than with the TX legislature. Federal aid is a small 7.4% of the total, so national funding changes have limited effect on this budget.

73,384 students across 124 schools averages 592 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 16.6:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

Worth flagging: high spending here is bought locally. A property-tax-funded budget at this level means school quality and Austin housing costs are tightly coupled — the tax bill on a home is effectively the school funding mechanism.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Austin Isd is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 4808940) and individual schools inside it vary widely. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Austin datasets on this site.

Statewide: Texas cities · Texas ZIP codes · Texas sales tax · Texas counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 4808940. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.