School district mask mandates face tough road ahead

Parents and taxpayers are taking to the streets in protest as blowback against local school district mask mandates continue to spread throughout the Central Texas region.

As school districts gradually opened their doors for the 2021-22 semester, mask mandates were immediately ordered by the usual suspects, such as the Austin and Round Rock ISDs. Other Austin-area ISDs such as Leander, Pflugerville, and Lago Vista were reticient at first, with generally more conservative boards of trustees.

On Monday, Pflugerville joined the ranks of dissident local governments, followed by Leander ISD on Tuesday.

Census: Austin population did not grow as quickly as estimated

 

The long-awaited Census data report came in today, and now Texas legislators can get to work on drawing jurisdictional maps for the decade ahead (assuming the runaway Democrats show up for work).

One surprise was quickly noticed when it comes to the boomtown of Austin: the population did not grow as much as expected. The Census estimate -- based on the 2019 American Community Survey -- overshot by roughly 17,000 people. 

The earlier estimate was 978,908 within the Austin city limits, as opposed to the formal 2020 count of 961,855. 

By contrast, the 2010 census count for Austin was 790,390.

We've seen a few signs of this coming: from flight to the suburbs and exurbs to Austin ISD closing schools to make up for decreased enrollment. But this doesn't mean Austin is shrinking. Quite the contrary: Austin grew by almost 22% over the past 10 years, and the five-county region jumped by a third to 2.2. million souls.

HOWEVER ... if the estimate was accurate, could Austin's draconian COVID-19 business closure orders, a gutting of the city's public safety budget, a sharp rise in crime, and the homeless camping situation over the past couple of years have contributed to the diminished final count since the 2019 snapshot? It couldn't have helped.