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✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 ‘Very successful’: City of Austin analyzing local impact of legislative session (KXAN)

🟪 Austin ISD board approves turnaround plans to restart underperforming middle schools (Community Impact)

🟪 Dallas to review programs linked with DEI to align with Trump’s executive orders (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 Democrats Allred, Castro, O’Rourke, Talarico meet to discuss 2026 options (Dallas Morning News)

🟪 Ted Cruz moves to stop Texas, other states from regulating AI (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 Texas A&M, university systems in other red states will create their own agency to review schools’ quality standards (Texas Tribune)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ City of Austin Org Chart (as of June 2025)

💰 2026 City of Austin Bond - Public Input

🏛️ City of Austin Seeks Proposals for Colony Park Displacement Mitigation Strategy RFP

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ ‘Very successful’: City of Austin analyzing local impact of legislative session (KXAN)

After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed 1,155 bills into law following the legislative session, the city of Austin is working through the specific impact of those bills on local governments. “I think it was a very successful legislative session,” Austin City Manager TC Broadnax said on Wednesday’s episode of Inside Austin’s Agenda. He believes city staff did a good job helping state lawmakers understand what’s happening in Austin. Broadnax said the city would share the full impact of the legislative session, including required code changes, with city council members within the next few months. “We are going through the process now. Our team — whether legal and/or our respective departments — are analyzing the impacts of those bills,” Broadnax said.

Broadnax did point to HB 2802, which will change the way the city of Austin pays retired firefighters by reforming the Austin Firefighters Retirement Fund (AFRF).

“As you’ll recall, AFRF has been on the Texas Pension Review Board watchlist for two years because it is out of compliance with state requirements. It is not considered “actuarially sound” because the unfunded liability is too great. The unfunded liability is projected to reach more than $327 million by the end of this year and the payback period will exceed 100 years. Soundness requires the liabilities for a retirement fund like this to be able to be paid back in 30 years or less,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson wrote in March… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin ISD board approves turnaround plans to restart underperforming middle schools (Community Impact)

Three Austin ISD middle schools will receive new principals, teachers and curriculum next school year as the district works to improve student performance.

The AISD board of trustees approved turnaround plans to restart Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools at a June 26 meeting. The district has until June 30 to submit these plans to the Texas Education Agency in response to two years of failed state accountability ratings.

AISD officials have been working to implement the state’s Accelerating Campus Excellence, or ACE, model at Burnet, Dobie and Webb. The ACE model is used to restart underperforming schools through hiring new campus leaders and teachers, extending learning time and using high-quality instructional materials… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Georgetown passes rules that would ban homeless people from sitting and sleeping downtown (KUT)

Georgetown City Council members have approved new ordinances related to homelessness, including a ban on people sitting, lying down or sleeping in public spaces downtown.

The vote Tuesday was unanimous. It came after advocates for people experiencing homelessness expressed concern during public comments about the impact of the rules.

Georgetown Police Chief Cory Tchida told council members at a meeting June 10 that his department has received numerous complaints about people and objects obstructing sidewalks downtown.

"After discussing the ramifications and the issues, we recommended some changes," he said. "I think it’s important to note that this particular ordinance [ban on sitting, lying down and sleeping] that we're recommending we change to is actually copied from the city of Austin."… 🟪 (READ MORE)

[TEXAS/US NEWS]

✅ Dallas to review programs linked with DEI to align with Trump’s executive orders (Dallas Morning News)

Dallas will begin reviewing municipal programs to determine if they align with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in hopes of retaining $305 million in federal grants. With no discussion, the City Council quickly authorized City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to take temporary steps to ensure compliance with federal directives and brief the City Council no later than Aug. 20 on her recommendations for which policies and programs need to be paused, though Tolbert has maintained the city can achieve its goals of serving underrepresented communities without violating federal directives.

The approval comes a day after the Fort Worth City Council delayed its vote on a similar measure to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The city is at risk of losing $277 million in federal funding per year, according to the Fort Worth Report.

Trump’s executive orders don’t require cities to discontinue equity programs, but they include provisions that broadly prohibit recipients of federal contracts or grants from operating or supporting any programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to city officials. Dallas, like most municipalities in the U.S., relies on federal dollars to advance its efforts to revitalize neighborhoods and their infrastructure, provide housing assistance and spur economic investment. The city has projects worth $980 million in the pipeline and include grants from federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice. The Dallas City Council was recently briefed in closed session on five executive orders that could have local effects.

For example, provisions in order No. 14168 target transgender residents by declaring just two sexes, while order No. 14173 revokes former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 executive order that established “affirmative action” to reverse discriminatory policies that excluded applicants based on their race and gender in the federal workplace. It is unclear what the orders mean for the city’s equity and inclusion office and its employees… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Texas A&M, university systems in other red states will create their own agency to review schools’ quality standards (Texas Tribune)

The Texas A&M System is partnering with university systems from five other Republican-led states to create a new agency to set quality standards for their schools.

The move comes amid Republican criticism of higher education accrediting agencies, which they say are partly responsible for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and reinforcing liberal bias in the country’s colleges and universities.

Officials with Texas A&M, State University System of Florida, University System of Georgia, University of Tennessee System, University of North Carolina System and University of South Carolina System said in a news release Thursday they will create a new agency to accredit them. They are calling the new body the Commission for Public Higher Education.

Texas A&M and most other public, four-year universities in Texas are currently accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Jim Suydam, Texas A&M University System’s director of media relations, said the university is not planning on leaving SACSCOC right now… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Democrats Allred, Castro, O’Rourke, Talarico meet to discuss 2026 options (Dallas Morning News)

Four of Texas’ leading Democrats met last month to sort out which of them is the best choice to run for the Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn and to potentially develop a slate that would contend for other statewide offices. There was a major obstacle. They all were steadfastly interested in running for Senate — and nothing else, advisers to three of the potential candidates told The Dallas Morning News this week. The May 31 virtual meeting featured former U.S. Reps. Colin Allred and Beto O’Rourke, along with U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and state Rep. James Talarico.

The potential candidates declined to discuss details of their private meeting, even as operatives from the four camps touted their political bona fides to The Dallas Morning News. With much of the party’s top talent interested in the marquee race, it could be difficult for Democrats to develop a robust slate of candidates, though they are hopeful the situation will work itself out. Some Democrats hope the four top Democrats would be slotted in campaigns for Senate, governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Democrats are anticipating the 2026 political climate will be unforgiving for Republicans.

Historically the party that controls the White House takes losses during midterm elections and Democrats hope voters will sour on President Donald Trump. There’s also the prospect that Attorney General Ken Paxton, who in 2023 was impeached before being acquitted by the Texas Senate and has a history of legal troubles, will defeat Cornyn for the GOP Senate nomination. Polls show Democrats would fare better against Paxton than Cornyn, a proven general election juggernaut. “I’m sure everybody wants a path that’s going to get them to a win and lead the Democrats out of the wilderness. That’s what history will remember,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political scientist. “Assuming Paxton wins, he’s the most vulnerable statewide official and he’s the clear target.”… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Ted Cruz moves to stop Texas, other states from regulating AI (Houston Chronicle)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is moving to stop Texas and other states from regulating artificial intelligence technology, saying the industry should be able to develop quickly without having to navigate a patchwork of rules. On Wednesday, Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released a revised provision of the federal budget reconciliation bill that would restrict access to a newly created $500 million AI deployment fund to states that don't regulate artificial intelligence for the next ten years. The move could hamstring efforts to put guardrails on the burgeoning industry, including in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed a new law that would ban the use of artificial intelligence technology to manipulate human behavior and produce child pornography. The legislation passed the Texas Legislature overwhelmingly. 

State Sen. Angela Paxton, R-Allen, likened the provision to a "10-year freeze on state AI laws," in a social media post Tuesday. "If the bill passes in its current form, Texas wouldn’t be able to enforce the common-sense protections to protect our kids from things like deepfake AI child pornography, and other bipartisan AI regulations that were just signed into law," she wrote. "This is a federal overreach that strips states of our duty to protect children." Cruz's office declined to comment for this story. The Republican has pushed the provision as a means to allow AI companies to develop more quickly so they can stay ahead of China in what is considered a critical technology for the future.

"A single state should not have the power to set AI rules for the entire country," said a one-pager released by his committee. "Instead, the U.S. should take steps to prevent an unworkable patchwork of disparate and conflicting state AI laws and to encourage states to adopt commonsense tech-neutral policies." But he is also facing opposition from some Republicans in the U.S. Senate who are worried the provision infringes on states' autonomy, including Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, and Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Why most Texas vouchers could go to homeschoolers, not private schools (Houston Chronicle)

As Texas lawmakers brawled over a school voucher plan this spring, scrutiny centered on whether to fund private school students’ tuition with taxpayer dollars. But an overlooked group of students may be some of the program’s biggest beneficiaries: homeschoolers, who can receive up to $2,000 a year. More than a half million Texas children are in homeschool, nearly double the private school population. The Legislature’s fiscal analysis of the voucher law estimates that around 270,000 would apply in the program’s first year, meaning they could account for a majority of the available $1 billion. “People have walked into this with the idea that this is a program for accredited private school students, and a few homeschoolers might also participate,” said Jeremy Newman, vice president of policy and litigation at the Texas Homeschool Coalition. “There’s a decent probability it will be the opposite.”

The prediction, shared by other experts, came down to a few factors. Low-income families are first in line for the stipend. Homeschool families may be more likely to qualify since one parent is likely serving as the primary teacher, Newman said. And homeschoolers would bypass the biggest hurdle of needing to be accepted into a private school to access the funds, which become available in the 2026-2027 school year. They are also not subject to the standardized test requirements that recipients in private schools face. But how many actually apply remains to be seen. Homeschool families surveyed by Hearst Newspapers said they are split on whether they will seek the funds. A few have a distrust of the government harkening back to when some parents were jailed for homeschooling in Texas in the early 1980s.

Others believe taking money from the state would mean giving up freedom over their children’s education. The estimated population of homeschool students in Texas is between 500,000 to 650,000 students, rivaling the entire population of Wyoming. Research into the homeschool population is difficult in part because Texas has among the nation’s most lenient regulations for homeschoolers, said Robert Kunzman, an Indiana University professor who leads the International Center for Home Education Research. Parents are not required to provide the government with test scores or other proof of their children’s learning… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Immigrants drive population growth in a graying America, census shows (Washington Post)

Immigration is driving U.S. population growth and helping offset a broader demographic shift as the baby boom generation ages, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. children outnumber older adults, but older adults’ share of the population is growing, the census data released Thursday shows. From 2023 to 2024, the number of Americans 65 and older climbed by 3.1 percent while the population under 18 declined by 0.2 percent. There are more older adults than children in nearly half of U.S. counties, and the pattern is particularly strong in sparsely populated areas, the bureau said. The gap between the two groups “is narrowing,” in part because of a decline in births this decade, said Lauren Bowers, chief of the Census Bureau’s population estimates branch, in a statement Thursday.

At the same time, a historic rise in immigration, particularly among Hispanics and Asians, has counteracted some of that population decline. The Hispanic population in the U.S. rose by about 9.7 percent from April 2020 to July 2024, including both immigration and births, while the Asian population grew by about 13 percent. (This analysis applies the Census Bureau’s classification of the non-Hispanic racial groups as excluding people who also identify as Hispanic.) “This past year, the population gain was bigger than it’s ever been before,” said Bill Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, a think tank.

“Overall, it’s because of immigration.” A sharp drop in the number of White children is a major factor in the declining number of American children overall, and that decline has been partially offset by the rising number of non-White youth, Frey said, based on his analysis of the census data. White Americans accounted for 57.5 percent of the total population last year but for 47.5 percent of the population under age 18. By comparison, Hispanic people accounted for 20 percent of the total population and 26.9 percent of children… 🟪 (READ MORE)

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