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The Austin school district is one of four in the state that’s under review by the Texas comptroller for how it spent taxpayer money last year. It’s happening as many districts in the state, including Austin, are working to balance their budgets. We’ll dig into what we know so far.
NPR has mined grade-school and college students for the stories impacting their lives through podcast challenges. Now they’re adding another group to that list: Seniors.
The second weekend of the ACL music fest is bringing lots of big names to town and highlighting the local ones making their names known. Today, we’ll hear from the rock duo Almost Heaven ahead of their first ACL appearance on Friday.
A we’ve also got more from weekend 1 festivalgoers about the big topics shaping their worlds.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] The Austin School District is one of four in the state that’s under review by the Texas Comptroller for how it spent taxpayer money last year. It’s happening as many districts in the State, including Austin, are working to balance their budgets, what we know so far. And NPR has mined grade school and college students for the stories impacting their lives through podcast challenges, and now they’re adding another group to that list, seniors. More about their stories coming up on today’s show.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:33] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:39] The second weekend of the ACL Music Fest is bringing lots of big names to town and highlighting the local ones making their names known. Today, we’re gonna hear from the rock duo Almost Heaven ahead of their first ACL appearance on Friday. Plus, we’ve got more from weekend one festival goers about the big topics shaping their worlds. That’s up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. You are listening to Austin Signal, and I’m your host Jerry Quijano. It is Wednesday, the seventh day of October. We’re glad you’re here with us. Texas Comptroller Don Huffinds this week announced four school districts in the state would undergo a, quote, performance review, auditing how they are spending taxpayer funds. Among them, the Austin Independent School District. Here to tell us more is KUT’s education reporter, Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vazquez. Greta, welcome back to the show.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:01:37] Hi, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:01:37] Okay, so tell us a little bit about this announcement from the Texas Comptroller, what exactly are they looking into?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:01:43] Yeah, so he said that his office will be doing a performance review of four Texas school districts to ensure transparency and responsible use of public funds. He picked four districts of different sizes in terms of enrollment, AISD is the biggest one, and also different locations in the state. So we have Austin ISD, El Paso ISD Barbers Hill ISD which is east of Houston and then Prosper ISD, which is north of Dallas.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:12] Okay, so now we know what is going to happen. Do we know why, what is the impetus for this investigation?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:02:18] Yes, back in August, Governor Greg Abbott asked the Comptroller to carry out this investigation saying that Texans deserve to know how education funds are used. And he also pointed out to an administrative bloat of districts and he said that money should be going to classrooms and teachers to instruction, not central office growth, consultants in quote, non-instructional bureaucracy. So that’s why he asked the comptroller to out this investigation. And he said the Comptroller could pick the districts of different sizes and one of the things that wasn’t included was either charter or districts that are under a takeover like Houston or Fort Worth.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:57] When this news came into the KUT newsroom earlier this week, there was seemingly the same question over and over again. Has this happened before, now that you’ve had some time to look into it, is this a normal course of action?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:03:08] So not to this extent financially, and what I’ve heard from advocates is the TA keeps an eye on how districts spend their money. And regulations are pretty tight. So they can actually, the TA can take over a district because of financial mismanagement. And so advocates, when I talked to them yesterday, they questioned why these four districts are being looked at right now when there’s already somebody who does that. But I will say in the last year, there’s been plenty of investigations launched on Austin ISD. And in April, the Texas Education Agency launched one looking into Pride Week. Then we also saw a couple from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in February was because of walkouts. We talked about it here. Students walked out because protesting ICE presence in Austin, that was back in February, and Attorney General Kim Paxton filed an investigation. Also there’s another one about compliance and posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom. So, There’s plenty of investigations and I will say we have not heard the results of those previous investigations. I asked Paxton’s office and also TA if they could point to where I could find this information and I did not hear back.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:20] What do we know about how this is going to affect the districts that are being audited?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:24] So we are not sure what it will entail. The final report is expected to be completed by the end of this year, December 31st. Avid said that he wanted legislatures to have information before the next session to be able to make decisions. And we know that starts next year, 2027. But advocates told me when there’s an investigation, then that means paperwork needs to be filed, which means needing more admin or somebody like reassigning staff to look into that.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:52] Somebody’s gonna have to do that for us.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:04:53] Right, which increases admin costs, which is part of what they’re looking into.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:57] Well, speaking of advocates, what have we heard so far from education advocates or even the Austin School District about this audit, this investigation?
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:05] Yeah, so advocates told me that in the last few years, districts have had to comply with more regulation to access funding, which has led to more people in central office. Let’s hear Chandra Villanueva, who is with Every Texan.
Chandra Villanueva [00:05:19] So everyone points to administrators as a bloat within the school system, but that’s not always true either. If they’re gonna make the system more complex and put on more regulations and rules on how schools operate and how they can spend their dollars and somebody needs to track and be reporting that to the state.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:05:38] And we also reached out to the district asking for an interview or for comment, but we haven’t heard back. But back in August, the TA flag that Austin ISD hadn’t lowered their student TAF ratio despite losing enrollment. But AISD officials over the years have said that they have decreased administrative costs and during board meetings, we see very often a chart that shows their admin cost that has been going down.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:04] Okay, that is Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vazquez. She is KUT’s education reporter. We’re gonna have a link to her story in today’s show notes. Greta, thank you.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:11] Thank you, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:21] Alright, as you know, here in Public Radio we love our stories, and as KUT kicks off its new project, The Long View, Aging in Austin, we got to thinking about the stories we’ve all gathered throughout our lives. Well, NPR is providing a new opportunity for folks to share their story and their podcast ideas nationwide. NPR podcast fans are probably familiar with their student podcast challenge and their college podcast challenge, now they’re adding a new one, a senior podcast challenge. They’re encouraging people aged 65 and up to produce stories of old memories or new beginnings, really just stories about almost anything. KUT’s senior editor Saida Carrillo talked with NPR’s Janet Oujang Li and Steve Drummond from the Society and Culture Desk about the project.
Steve Drummond [00:07:07] What’s diff- about this latest contest.
Steve Drummond [00:07:10] We’re excited about this. We’ve been working with students from grades 4 through 12 and in college for several years, but we’ve had the idea for some years that there’s a different generation that might have something to say as well, and that’s people over 65. There’s 60 million Americans who are in that age group. They’re the fastest growing part of the population, and basically we think they’re a group of people who have a lot of stories to tell, stories that don’t often make it into the news media and stories about All kinds of things, so we’re really excited to see what these folks have to say.
Steve Drummond [00:07:42] And how did the idea come about to work with seniors after so many years of working with younger talent?
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:07:48] Year after year, some of our best entries that came from young people often included voices of seniors. These were grandparents, older family friends, sharing everything from personal stories to retellings of historical events, which some of them lived through. And one year in our college podcast challenge, we heard from a student who went back to college in her 60s, talking about how that experience was like revisiting. School after all her other life experiences, like having kids, grandkids. We just kind of pieced all that together and felt like this is a big part of our listenership and also people with so much life experience and such great stories that we don’t often get to hear on the radio. So we are really excited to hear all about it of stories of entering retirement or whether it be new adventures, like travel, love, kids, grandchildren. Just anything you are passionate about. This is also just really exciting for our team to tap into stories that we haven’t gotten to hear as much.
Steve Drummond [00:08:51] We were really excited to learn about this project at NPR because at KUT, we’re actually kicking off a new reporting project called The Long View, which is focused on aging in Austin. I’d love to know what you hope the broader audience takes away from hearing from seniors across the country.
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:09:09] One of the things we’ve noticed over the years with our students is that young people talking in their own voice or to their peers is a very different voice and a very different sound than they do when they’re talking to grownups. And we think with this older generation, we hope for a similar thing. These are people who often don’t hear their voices in the national discussion and that They have all kinds of experiences and viewpoints and life. Challenges that we’d like to hear about and hear them talking in their own voice, in their own way.
Steve Drummond [00:09:43] I imagine that for folks who are not familiar with podcasting or picking up recording equipment, it might be a little intimidating to jump into something like this. What message or advice would you have for seniors that might be nervous?
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:09:59] Not take fancy equipment to make a podcast. And I really mean this because we’ve had winners and finalists in the past. Their podcasts would sound so good that I even asked like, what did you do to record? And they would say their iPhone mic. You just need a phone to record and a laptop to edit in. And if you are a little worried about the editing part, we have a ton of resources on our website that you can find by looking up NPR sound advice. That’ll walk you through everything from best recording tips, best home studio setup, ways to use free software and different training materials for some of the ones we recommend that you can all download for free. Even within our judging criteria, we put so, so much more emphasis on story and structure. So if you are excited and know that you have a great story to tell, please just spend a little time thinking about that story more and just get that to us because we’re just excited to listen to it.
Steve Drummond [00:10:54] And as far as the subject matter of the podcasts go, it sounds like it’s pretty wide open in terms of what people might want to explore, is that right?
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:11:02] Yes, we’ve tried over the years to not to restrict it with students to social studies or government or some specific topic, but open it up widely and it’s worked really well. We’ve had all kinds of stories and we’re hoping with our senior listeners we’ll get the same thing. Again, as Janet says, maybe it’s adapting to retirement or maybe it’s concerns about health or health care or the loneliness and isolation of the loss of a spouse or divorce or Again, on the positive side, new adventures, travel, romance, all kinds of things. Basically, it’s wide open. I’d love to know more about your work.
Steve Drummond [00:11:36] About the process. Tell me where people can get started and find more information if they want to participate.
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:11:44] On November 30th and if you’re kind of like where do I get started I’ve never made a podcast before look up NPR sound advice and from the top of the page you can literally go through everything from how to choose a good story to how to write a script to the very end with adding music and finalizing your podcast and making it shine
Steve Drummond [00:12:01] Where is the work that seniors submit to the podcast challenge going to live?
Janet Woojeong Lee [00:12:06] Our judges are gonna hopefully narrow it down to 8 or 10 finalists and many of those over the years and this time too end up on NPR shows all over the place and then we’re trying something new this year, our grand prize winner, we’re gonna bring them to Washington on a Sunday and they’ll be in the studio while they get to watch and listen as their story airs on weekend edition Sunday.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:30] That’s NPR Steve Drummond and Janet Ujong Lee talking with KUT senior editor Saida Carrillo about NPR senior podcast challenge. Entries are due November 30th. We’re going to have more about the project and how folks here in town can enter in today’s podcast show notes. We have got more Austin Signal for you that’s coming up after this break. Welcome back to the show. As you’ve heard throughout this week, the Austin signal team spent time at ACL Fest last weekend, speaking with attendees about current issues on their mind. We asked about AI and data centers, the upcoming election. And today here’s what they had to share about immigration enforcement.
ACL Attendee [00:13:22] David Zavala, T-A-V-I-T, Z-A V-A L-A. I mean, I have families that are DACA, I have family that are undocumented. They all came here to find work, they came here to live out their dreams and to find success and there’s nothing wrong with that. We come to this land of opportunity and you can’t just do that for some and not all, especially those that are seeking refuge from violence, domestic violence, sexual abuse, terrorism. To send them back home where they’re unsafe, it’s un-American.
ACL Attendee [00:13:55] Guillermo don’t go my mom is terrified to leave her house to even like go get food or like basic groceries So like that’s really tough. She’s worked her whole life to like build herself up from the ground. She has her own business She’s finally successful I’m so proud of her like the fact that she’s so terrified to live her own home when she’s literally living out the American Dream, you know like everything that we speak for here in America You know, I want her to feel comfortable in the place where she lives
ACL Attendee [00:14:22] Maria Rodriguez? Yeah, of course. It’s really scary. Myself, like, you know, Latina. So, you it really is scary to get targeted by that, for sure. Like, you never know. Like, even going out, it almost feels scary.
ACL Attendee [00:14:39] Anusha Razdan, um, honestly, yeah, I think that like seeing how like Maria is being affected by all this has really like been impacting me a lot. It’s like hard to see people I’m close to be so impacted by that’s so stupid. And we even actually like last year we planned a trip to San Francisco and there was like rumors of a big ice raid in San Francisco. The airport that weekend and so we decided to cancel our trip literally like the day before just because like it’s crazy like it is so scary and unsafe and yeah like it just really sad to see all of this happening.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:36] Quite a few homegrown acts have and will be taking the stage over the course of both weekends at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. One of them, Almost Heaven, also happened to perform in KUTX’s Studio 1A recently, and Austin Signal got a chance to catch up with members Stefan Barraza and Jalen Valero ahead of their ACL Fest debut. So tell us a little bit about yourselves. I understand that y’all were introduced through mutual friends. How did that come about?
Stefan Barraza [00:16:07] I’ll do it. I’ll take it. Um, the Jalen and I, yeah, we, we will, I don’t know. Technically the story is. We were born in a lab. Yeah, we were made.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:16] The real story then.
Stefan Barraza [00:16:17] We were made in a lab. My lab was based in El Paso. Her lab was base in Austin, actually. Okay. But we were part of the same experiment. And essentially we came from the same DNA. And the whole point of the experiment was they separated us. And they wanted to see if we would find our way back to each other.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:36] Okay, so how did you recognize that she was your sister?
Stefan Barraza [00:16:39] It was like we heard our each other’s voices and yes, my smell is the thing. Really horrifying. Yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:47] I don’t talk about it a lot.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:48] I understandably so, as I’m hearing about it right now. It’s not the most appealing thing, but it is part of the human body and the human experience. What do you admire about your brother, your long lost brother?
Jalen Valero [00:17:01] Um, his, how organic all of the amazing and slash insane ideas that come, come out of that brain. It’s just, it’s so authentic and anything he wants to do, he can do it. I think when you hear about his music origin story, you would be shocked to find out how long he’s been doing any of this. And it’s just so mind-blowing how talented he is.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:33] Do you find similarities in your own style, or do you find that y’all are kind of complete opposites and that makes, it helps to make things work?
Jalen Valero [00:17:40] I think the coolest thing about our pairing is that we have such an aligned vision, but we pool from so many different influences that complement each other so well. And I think that’s just why it works.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:55] What are some of the influences that y’all pull from?
Stefan Barraza [00:17:58] Um, first off, that’s the nicest thing she’s ever said to me. I mean, we need to do more radio shows. Um, no, I’m just kidding. You have to be ready because I’m going to ask you the same question. I mean if you’ve seen us live and the microphone doesn’t give it away already. Um, LCD sound system is my favorite band of all time and they have been for a very long time.
Music [00:18:16] Ten Star Resort
Stefan Barraza [00:18:22] Really, a lot of the DFA world is a big influence on us. The Rapture is probably my second favorite band. And then we, I mean, Jalen brought in a lot. I think Jalen is very much still a music finder and like she has her ear to the pulse, you know? And yeah, I feel like I, once I started making music for some reason, I felt like I stopped looking for new music and I kind of just started trying to make new music, I guess. And Jalen’s always still finding new music in. You know, she runs Locket magazine, which is an amazing Austin entity here as well. And they’re putting on the craziest shows here. Like, you know, I don’t know. It was almost like finding, she showed me like our other long lost cousins. Like, do you know what I mean? That are all around the world that are kind of doing something similar that I was not even aware of, you now? And it’s like the Stitch show when he has like all those cousins scattered all over. Scattered all over.
Jalen Valero [00:19:32] It all comes back to Lilo and Stitch.
Stefan Barraza [00:19:35] Oratories
Jalen Valero [00:19:35] Yeah, sometimes I feel like I’m Lilo and Stefana Stitch. Okay, okay, you get it.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:38] Okay, okay. That’s a great description for our radio audience. So tell us how is it that this music comes together?
Stefan Barraza [00:19:45] Um, I mean the process is intuitive very much so um But really what it feels like is Jalen and I are just finger painting with sounds We’re just in the room finger painting loud sounds
Music [00:19:59] I want the sweat right off your…
Jerry Quijano [00:20:04] And pressing buttons on April 10th. Button spamming on April 12th.
Stefan Barraza [00:20:09] And then you get Fever Trying to Blow.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:21] All right, well, yeah, y’all are gonna be playing ACL Fest this year that is coming up very soon What does that feel like? I mean for you as a native austinite. How exciting is that?
Jalen Valero [00:20:30] It’s amazing, it’s the best thing ever. I mean, all of my like, most of my earliest experiences like falling in love with music is at ACL in Austin. And like going to school the next day with my band still on and being like, sorry, I’m late today guys, I was at ACL yesterday. But yeah, it just couldn’t be more of a full circle moment. It really is like the highlight of my life, get it to a place.
Music [00:20:57] Yeah, we’re ready to rock and roll I am unwinding, the timing is perfect, it all makes sense now
Jerry Quijano [00:21:09] Stefan, do you have anything special planned for ACLFest? You’re gonna be out in the crowd? Crowd surfing? What are you thinking?
Stefan Barraza [00:21:15] It’s a secret come on we can
Jerry Quijano [00:21:18] 2 Friday, Tito’s stage. Alright. Okay, well before we let y’all get out of here, there are quite a few Austin artists featured on the ACL lineup, but not as many as some people would always like to see, so I wanted to ask y’ all, do you have a favorite Austin artist right now that is always on your playlist, or tell us a little bit about someone local.
Jalen Valero [00:21:38] There’s so many. There’s a lot. You should know.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:40] You should know, though, with the locket, I feel like you had, you should find that. Trying to pick a favorite. I don’t know. I mean, we’re big font font. Yeah, I was gonna be like, let’s say one, two, three I knew we’re both gonna say
Stefan Barraza [00:21:51] I had that literal same thought I was about to go scene on three one two three font. Yeah
Jerry Quijano [00:21:58] They’re doing amazing things, there’s so many big things coming up. Another group where it’s just like, wow, I can’t believe we get to be here to watch this unfold. We’re very lucky. Same with Dice Fits, some of my favorite people in the whole world. 86 Truth. That’s my solo project. That’s right. Okay, that’s why I was not familiar. Okay. Um.
Stefan Barraza [00:22:23] Well, get familiar, everybody. This is what the purpose of the interview.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:27] DiceBits, Witches Exist, Team Trust, Daystar, there’s so many!
Jerry Quijano [00:22:34] Fantastic! That’s a good list to start out with and there’s a few former KU-TX Artists of the Months and I have a feeling that pretty soon, almost heaven, will be a KUTX Artist of the month. We’ve been chatting with Stephán Barraza and Jalen Valero. Thank you all for your time! Thank you!
Music [00:22:55] Rock, push, push!
Jerry Quijano [00:22:57] All right, that is it for us today here on Austin Signal. I believe Almost Heaven’s Set starts at 12.45 on Friday. Don’t forget, Austin Signal is coming to you live from ACL Fest at Zilker Park. We’ll be on the air from one to two, and it looks like the weather’s gonna cooperate, so tune in, we got a lot of special things for ya. The Austin Signal team is Reina Sevilla, Alexandra Hart, Kristen Cabrera, and I’m your host, Jerry Kehannel. We’ll back at the same time tomorrow. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
