- Redistricting and flood response, two separate issues colliding at the special session of the legislature.

Also, questions about Guadalupe River Summer Camps and the floodplain.

"Austin InSight" starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin.

And also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - Hello, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

There are 18 items on the agenda of the current special session of the Texas legislature, but two of them are getting the most attention: redrawing congressional districts, and how to respond to the July 4th flooding disaster.

The House Select Committee on Redistricting is holding hearings across the state.

Redistricting opponents, including sitting members of Congress and candidates running for Congress, are speaking out.

The US Department of Justice is asking Texas to redraw four districts, saying they were drawn based on race.

In a response to the DOJ, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said quote, "The evidence was clear and unequivocal: the Texas legislature did not pass race-based electoral districts."

- If you look at the four districts in question that the Department of Justice listed on their letter, this process is aimed at removing Black congressional representatives.

Three of those four seats are Black held seats.

That is an attempt to racially gerrymander our state.

- After one of the worst mass casualty events in our state's history, to go and gerrymander people out of their seats, that's what you have chosen to do with your time because you're scared of Donald Trump.

- [Laura] There was a dramatic moment at the hearing in Austin last week when Houston area candidate Isaiah Martin's remarks exceeded time limits for public comment.

- [Chair] All right, the sergeants are directed to remove the gentleman from the room.

- [Isaiah] History will not remember you kindly for what you have done.

They will not.

Matter of fact, history might not remember you at all because of what you have done.

(audience applauds) - [Chair] The gentleman will be removed.

- [Isaiah] You need to have shame.

History will not remember you for what you have done.

(gavel bangs) It is a shame.

- [Laura] Meanwhile, a joint House and Senate Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding has held meetings in Austin and in Kerrville.

And joining us now for more on the flooding response is "Texas Tribune" reporter, Emily Foxhall.

Emily, thanks so much for being with us.

- Thanks for having me.

- Emily, what do we know so far about proposed legislation related to disaster response and flood protection?

- There have been quite a few bills that have been filed so far on this topic after the deadly flooding.

But what we've seen really publicly was just one hearing that was held earlier this month when state legislators invited largely state officials and some regional officials to talk about what had happened.

And in that hearing, which really, you know, went on for almost 12 hours, a lot of topics came up.

But there were a few, maybe I'll point out for you, that really rose to our attention.

One was this issue of there's county judges and mayors who can appoint emergency management coordinators, and those are people who can help in times of disaster.

But the state really has no minimum standard qualification for who is in that role.

And that got, you know, the senators and the house members really paying attention.

Then they also discussed related to that, there's no mechanism for the state to necessarily make sure those people are awake and alert when something like these floods happen.

So there were just a number of moments like that, of kind of these specific examples of ways that the response went wrong that the legislators indicated sort of an interest and a frustration in.

- After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, a major statewide disaster plan project was launched, but proposals related to that did not pass in the regular session of the legislature this year.

What happened?

- Right, I think what you're referring to is when Senator Kolkhorst brought up during this hearing earlier this month that she had done some work after the hurricane, and there was a committee report that came out of it looking at the same issue of sort of a lack of standards, again, for these local emergency management coordinators.

So this report had put together some suggestions for how to begin to address that, but Senator Kolkhorst basically said she didn't know what had come out of that.

And it was a theme that kept coming up during this hearing, you know, this frustration with the lawmakers bringing up that these weren't new issues.

You know, a lot of these problems are problems that lawmakers have seen before, and that the state really has failed to address.

- And in a special session, there's not as much time to consider bills.

Based on what you've seen at the public hearing in Austin, do you think significant policy will be approved?

How much pressure do you think lawmakers are feeling from their constituents on this?

- Right, it's definitely more of a sprint compared to the regular session.

But I think, you know, just the fact that it's part of the discussion now is important to remember.

And also, you know, the way that this really struck at a place in Texas that is dear and beloved to so many people, the tragedy of the many lives lost.

You know, we all saw the outpouring of grief and of support around that.

So there certainly has been a huge public interest in this and investment in this.

But, again, as we've been discussing, you know, the lawmakers brought up these past disasters that were also heartbreaking and that they also struggled to fix.

So I think it, again, brings up for us, you know, the solutions to these are not easy, one-size-fits-all answers.

It's going to take a multi-layered approach, as many experts have said.

And there were just sort of a vast array of issues that need to be considered.

So how much and how widely the legislators act will certainly be something that we watch.

- And indeed we will be watching that as well.

Emily Foxhall from "The Texas Tribune," thank you so much for sharing your reporting with us.

- Thank you.

- We're continuing to look at contributing causes of the July 4th flood disaster.

Which brings us back to the question, how could this happen?

So far we've looked at climate change as a root cause, failed efforts to improve the warning systems in Kerr County, and now we'll focus on fateful decisions about where cabins at Camp Mystic are located.

27 campers and camp staff died at the historic camp, including owner Dick Eastland.

Reporting from "The New York Times," "The Associated Press," AP, and others confirms that many of the camps buildings were located within the FEMA designated floodplain, including the cabins where all but one of the deaths at Camp Mystic occurred.

In the Twins, two adjoining cabins, 11 girls died.

The cabin sits inside the highest risk area known as the Floodway.

Next door, everyone inside the Bubble Inn cabin died.

13 girls and two teenage counselors.

The AP story notes that FEMA said yes to multiple requests from the camp to remove dozens of buildings from the 100-year floodplain designation.

In the AP report, FEMA representatives responded saying, quote, "Flood maps are snapshots in time designed to show minimum standards for floodplain management and the highest risk areas for flood insurance.

They are not predictions of where it will flood, and they don't show where it has flooded before."

End quote.

For more on this, we spoke with Dr. Sarah Pralle associate professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

(bright music) Dr. Pralle, thanks so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- So you worked with the AP reporting team to analyze Camp Mystic's many flood map exemptions.

Does anything concern you about your findings?

- Well, yes, in the sense that they were spending time and money to appeal these maps.

So they have to go through a process that FEMA sets up to do this.

And oftentimes it involves, you know, getting new studies done to see whether these maps are accurate or not.

And my concern was why were they spending their resources and time and money trying to move these lines on a map and get properties out of the official flood zone?

When I think that time and money should have been better spent trying to get buildings out of, you know, risky areas, trying to perhaps change the buildings so that they were more safe and protective.

So that's my main concern is that it doesn't seem like maybe perhaps their priority wasn't necessarily on flood mitigation and trying to get, you know, the campers more safe, but rather on really trying to get out of these official flood zones for whatever reasons.

- And the camp, that area you bring up, it has a history of floods, though, of course, none like this.

Why would FEMA grant all these requests for exemptions?

- Well, FEMA, the law allows property owners and communities, in fact, to appeal flood maps.

So it gives people a chance to say, "Well, according to your criteria, these buildings or these pieces of property are not in the official flood zone."

In other words, they are above the base flood elevation levels for these hundred-year flood zones.

So if there's good evidence backing up these appeals, FEMA by law to some extent has to approve them.

So I think that the onus is partly more on the property owners for pursuing this in the first place, again, rather than really spending their efforts and time elsewhere.

- And FEMA's response too suggests that floodplain maps are inherently subject to change.

So what then is the role of these maps when it comes to decisions that impact safety, not just insurance costs?

- Yes, well, the flood maps should be designed, the whole program was designed to try to disincentivize people from living in these high-risk areas, partly by, as you mentioned, by carrying an insurance premium if you're within these zones, but also regulating the structure.

So basically increasing the cost of developing within these flood zones.

So that's really the intent of the program.

And it's supposed to also, I think, create a conversation at the local level about what is the real risk of flooding.

And that's what the maps I think were originally designed to do was to start those conversations, to provide information for communities.

- And of course risks can change over time.

FEMA doesn't regulate property development.

We touched on that.

Should we look then to local governments to decide how close to the water to allow a camp or anyone for that matter to build?

- Yes, absolutely.

I mean, the other big component of this is that local communities can go above and beyond what's required by FEMA in terms of development within these flood zones.

There are some minimum requirements.

So if you're part of the NFIP program, the National Flood Insurance Program, you are subject to minimal requirements.

But communities can go above and beyond that if they so choose.

Unfortunately, not many of them do.

And I think that's a real problem, because that would actually help to mitigate the risk and probably have saved lives if you can regulate it even more strictly.

- It's too early right now to know where and whether rebuilding will take place in the Kerrville area.

How should floodplain management guide future development or in this case redevelopment?

- Well, I mean, you would hope that in the wake of a tragedy like this, that it would spur more attention to this and more local restrictions, zoning laws and restrictions.

I think sometimes people have a short memory, and the flood, you know, is over, and people sort of move on.

And you see this actually in terms of individual behavior as well.

That people might carry insurance after a flood.

So they will start buying insurance after a flood, and then after a few years, if it doesn't flood again, they'll drop that insurance.

And so really, the attention has to stay focused on this risk.

And we all know that the risk is going up.

And so you would hope that this spurs on some political will to try to be more protective.

I know that in the past, Kerr County, some officials did try to get the population and the community to focus on this risk and were somewhat unsuccessful in really changing local regulations.

And I would hope that changes, but we'll have to wait and see.

- Indeed, we will.

And from what we've seen and heard in Kerr County, this is a conversation many of them are very eager to have.

Dr. Pralle, thank you so much for helping us better understand the role of floodplain management in this disaster, and maybe preventing disaster in the future.

- Thank you.

(bright music) - Also on the agenda at the special session is eliminating the STAAR test, the standardized test that Texas uses to measure public school student progress and a key ingredient in grading school systems performance.

"Austin InSight" data reporter Meredith Roberts takes an in-depth look at this unpopular test.

(intriguing music) - The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, the STAAR.

Kids skip school to escape it.

Teachers have to teach to the test, and politicians even tried to replace it.

(intriguing music) But first, what is the STAAR test?

The STAAR assesses students from 3rd to 12th grade on math, science, history, English, and a written essay.

Many tests have come before the STAAR to measure student performance, but the grading system has never had so much weight in school closures and state control.

The STAAR is also what determines school's accountability ratings.

Introduced by a 2017 law, TEA's accountability ratings are the A through F scores each school gets every year.

70% of the rating accounts for students' achievement on the STAAR and improvement from the year before.

The other 30% is closing the gaps, or accounting improvement from kids with special needs or English language learners.

High schools are also graded based on graduation rates, and college, career, and military readiness outcomes.

Elementary and middle schools rely entirely on the STAAR.

These grades can determine whether or not schools stay open.

If one school gets five Fs in a row, the whole district is vulnerable to a TEA takeover.

The only other option is to close the school.

Cut off the arm to save the body.

The clock starting ticking for Texas schools before they even realized.

But many schools started counting during the 2018 to 2019 school year.

Then things got weird.

(contemplative music) The pandemic hit and no one was tested that year.

For two years after that, schools that scored below a C were left unrated.

So back to normal in 2023?

No.

TEA changed the STAAR's grading metrics, then TEA redesigned the STAAR.

Students took the test online, faced new kinds of questions, and had to write a lot more.

More than a hundred school districts sued the TEA to block the release of those scores.

2024's test scores also held up in court.

Schools sued over TEA's new hybrid scoring system where all written responses go through an autoscoring engine similar to ChatGPT and a quarter of these answers then go to human scorers.

TEA saved $15 million on human graders.

(contemplative music) Out of the 112 schools graded in AISD, 30 got Fs, more than any other letter grade.

Many think this is due to the STAAR redesign and TEA's changing standards without enough time to prepare students and teachers.

- The standards didn't change.

These these campuses that we're talking about in Austin, I think the last time that they met minimum academic standards was something like 2017, 2016.

It's been a long time since there were kids that were at those schools that could reach any reasonable level of proficiency.

- [Meredith] But on average, AISD's school grades dropped five points since 2019.

Over 20 schools dropped 20 points and many schools that received Fs in 2023 previously had a good track record.

Wooldridge Elementary went from a B in 2019 to an F in 2023.

In Austin ISD, schools that reported more than half of their students as economically disadvantaged received a median score of a 64, a D. Schools that reported less than half had a median score of a 90, an A.

(people chattering) Students who are still learning English can take the STAAR in Spanish until 5th grade.

After that though, AISD students only get a one-year grace period where their STAAR scores don't count.

The STAAR is only offered in English after 5th grade.

Many Dobie students feed into Navarro Early College High School.

The high school received a D in 2023, but almost 70% of its student body is learning English.

Students at Navarro speak Pashto, Polish, Arabic, Chinese, Mandarin, Kurdish, Kutchi, Dari, Portuguese, French, Nigerian, Vietnamese, Urdu, Burmese, Swahili, Yoruba, Spanish, and English.

- We got kids that don't speak the language and haven't been in school.

And they went from getting one right to getting two right, that's 100% growth.

But it don't matter because it's not enough.

(people chattering) - When the 2023 scores were finally released, Dobie received its third F in a row.

They expect to get another.

(people chattering) - It's something the state enforces, but at the end of the day, it's slightly different than state accountability.

The reason- - [Meredith] District officials feared a TEA takeover.

In a letter to parents, they said it was a risk they couldn't take.

Discussions of school closure have gone back and forth, but AISD has landed on a district managed restart with a charter school as a backup plan if scores don't improve by December.

Under the restart plan, all the administration and most of the core subject teachers are no longer at Dobie.

- I don't know.

Does it measure what it needs to measure?

I guess so.

I mean, what's the end game?

What's the goal?

If you wanna take over AISD, yeah, it measures exactly what it needs to measure.

If you wanna see disparities, yeah, it measures exactly what it needs to measure.

But it is not a good tool for teacher effectiveness.

It is not a good tool for how quality a school is.

(gentle music) - [Meredith] It's hard to tell what future Dobie faces.

But in Rundberg, community members say Dobie is so much more than just a school.

- One, two, three, yay!

(people chattering) - [Photographer] Say cheese.

- [People] Cheese.

- [Meredith] They provide adult learning programs like HVAC certifications, post community meetings, food and blood drives, volunteering events, and so much more.

But this community hub will be unrecognizable because of the amount of weight put on a test taken by 11 to 14 year olds.

- Thanks again to Meredith Roberts for that story and the graphics.

Switching gears now, some good news for movie fans.

Hollywood is hoping a strong slate of summer blockbusters will reverse a year-long trend of poor attendance at movie theaters.

And that follows years of losses with the pandemic, and then the 2023 writer strike.

Some movie theaters are even getting creative to lure people back.

We talked with locally founded Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to learn more.

In the dead heat of summer, we're keeping it cool inside this movie theater here at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

We are joined by Bridget Garraway, the senior national events manager for Alamo Drafthouse.

Bridget, so great to be here with you.

- Happy to be here.

- So, Bridgette, Memorial Day weekend raked in some record-breaking box office numbers, and studios hope this signals a moviegoing boom this summer.

But are you guys seeing Austinites coming back into the theater?

- Oh, for sure.

We definitely see a lot more people coming back, which is a great sign.

We love having people come in.

And also, you know, it's Austin and it's summer, and it's really hot, and we have great AC and we like to keep our AC booming.

And so, yes, we are starting to see more people coming back, which is very exciting.

- Why do you think that is?

- I think we miss that community, and theaters and movies, cinema houses, they are a great sense of community.

Like, maybe you're not talking throughout the movie, but you're all in this community group experience watching a new film together, which is one of my favorite things.

We have people laughing together, maybe getting scared together, or people having different reactions than you did, and sometimes it kind of influences your take on the film, and it's just a really fun experience.

- What movies would you say are Austinites most excited about this summer?

- Well, we have a lot of superhero films coming up soon, which is very fun.

So we've got good blockbusters that I think people are very excited for.

Everybody's got their eyes on "Fantastic Four."

Pedro Pascal as Mr.

Fantastic, very excited.

You know, it's the summer of Pedro, so I'm here for that.

- It is.

It's always his summer though, but especially so this summer.

- Especially this summer.

And then we've got another "Jurassic World" movie coming out, and, you know, however those movies are reviewed, I love watching dinosaurs on big screens.

And then Jonathan Bailey also on the big screen with the dinosaurs, it's a win-win situation right there.

- They knew what they were doing.

- And then "Superman."

You know, we have James Gunn's new take on "Superman" and we get Krypto the Superdog on the big screen.

I'm here for it.

So we see a lot of people very excited for that.

- And people really need that escapism these days more than ever.

And this summer, something really cool that Alamo is doing to help lure fans back into the theaters is by showing some classic creature horror movies, including "Jaws", of course, for the 50th anniversary.

- [Bridget] Oh yes.

- But you guys are taking it a step further with "Jaws," and you're bringing the movie experience to the fans.

Can you please tell us about these screenings of "Jaws" on the water?

- Yes.

So, you know, "Jaws" is an iconic like film.

Spielberg did a great job with that film, and John Williams, of course, with his iconic score.

- Oh yeah, two notes change everything.

- Yes.

And so the best way to watch it I think is in the water.

And so that's what we started doing.

We did it a few years ago, and then the pandemic happened, but it was time to bring it back, especially for the 50th.

Like, what better time to do it?

And you get a really cool custom tube.

We do like body painting that looks like shark bites.

- [Laura] Ooh.

- And we have some games out there.

And then you get to watch it, and there's maybe some like little other surprises that happen and, you know, maybe some scuba divers that are in the water that grab your leg during tense moments with Bruce the Shark.

- That is diabolical.

And so a lot of people these days they, they might say, "Well, so many movies are on streaming, and I can save money and watch it from the comfort of my home."

What do you say to those people about, you know, coming back to experience a movie, not at home, but here in the actual theater?

- Yeah, like I said, that group experience is different.

At home, I am the worst at getting distracted during a movie.

I'll look at my phone, I'll start doing laundry.

- Oh, me too.

- I'm doing a craft during it, and I've missed all these iconic moments or really cool like Easter eggs if I'm watching a mystery movie, which most of the time that's what I'm watching.

And so at the theater, you get to really just lock in on that screen.

It's just better technology in a movie theater.

You have a better screen, a better projector, better sound system, and most of the time better AC that you don't have to pay for it, because I know I wanna keep that AC down, but I look at my electric bill and I'm like, okay, maybe we'll put it up a few notches, but don't have to worry about that in the movie theater.

- You know, that was the best point you've made this whole interview.

Yeah, you know, AC, it's true, unparalleled AC.

- Unparalleled.

- Your AC just breaks this summer.

Come to the movies.

- Buy four video tickets.

There's normally four rounds in a theater.

You get to watch four different movies and stay in the AC all day, not talk to anybody, and eat as much food as you want.

- Perfect, that's actually my plan right after this interview was to devour all of this.

Well, Bridget Garraway with Alamo Drafthouse, thank you so much for speaking with us.

- Absolutely.

Thank y'all.

- And I'm a great example because I went back to the movie theaters this summer here in Austin.

I saw "Superman" and "Sinners."

Really recommend those if you haven't seen them.

Thank you so much for watching.

We're off next week, but we'll be back with a special report on the flood aftermath, stories from the "Austin InSight" team's trip to Kerr County.

That's coming up on August 14th.

We'll see you then.

(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin.

And also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(playful music)