Education in Texas consists of a large and structurally distinct public school system, a network of public and private universities, and a range of alternative pathways including charter, private, and home schooling.
Texas has over 1,000 public school districts, nearly all of which are independent from municipal and county government—governed by locally elected boards with the power to levy taxes and exercise eminent domain. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides oversight and supplemental funding, though its jurisdiction is largely limited to intervening in low-performing districts. State curriculum is governed by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), maintained by the State Board of Education. Public school students are assessed through the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR).
At the postsecondary level, Texas has 35 public universities, organized into six state systems, as well as a large number of private institutions. Sixteen Texas universities hold Carnegie Tier One research classification. The state's higher education landscape grew substantially in the mid-twentieth century, shaped by wartime investment, the 1949 Gilmer-Aikin reforms that restructured K-12 funding and governance, and federal research dollars flowing to Texas institutions during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
History
Education in Texas began in the late 1830s. In breaking away from Mexico in 1836 the grievances in the Declaration of Independence complained of the failure of the Mexican government "to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources.".See "An Overview of the History of Public Education in Texas" (TEA 2023) online
Gilmer-Aikin Laws of 1949 After Beauford H. Jester, a Democrat, was re-elected to a second term as governor in 1948, he worked with A. M. Aikin Jr. to secure the most extensive education reforms in the state. The 1949 Gilmer-Aikin Act was the first comprehensive system for Texas school funding. It was a series of three bills that reformed the state's public school system. These laws significantly impacted Texas education by raising teacher salaries, consolidating school districts, and providing state funding for equalization. The reform also established the Texas Education Agency and guaranteed all Texas children the opportunity to attend public school for twelve years with a minimum of 175 actual teaching days per year. The laws consolidated 4,500 rural school districts into 2,900 more efficient administrative units. The pay scale for teachers was raised. Local taxes were supplemented with state money to equalize spending across the new school districts. Districts could obtain more money by decreasing non-attendance. The laws did not affect private schools or parochial schools operated by the Catholic Church. The laws did not change the legal requirement for segregation of Black schools. Hispanic students mostly attended all-Hispanic schools, although their segregation was not required by law.Oscar Mauzy, "The Impact of the Gilmer-Aikin Laws on Texas Education" Handbook of Texas (1976) onlineGene B. Preuss, "The modernization of Texas public schools: World War II and the Gilmer-Aikin laws" (PhD dissertation, Texas Tech University, 2004)
Higher education During World War II the main universities like University of Texas and Texas A&M University gained a new national role. The wartime financing of university research, curricular change, campus trainee programs, and postwar veteran enrollments changed the tenor and allowed Texas schools to gain national stature.
From 1950 through the 1960s, Texas modernized and dramatically expanded its system of higher education. Under the leadership of Governor Connally, the state produced a long-range plan for higher education, a more rational distribution of resources, and a central state apparatus that managed state institutions with greater efficiency. Because of these changes, Texas universities received federal funds for research and development during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.
Primary and secondary education
Texas has over 1,000 school districts—ranging in size from the gigantic Houston Independent School District to the Divide Independent School District in rural south Texas, which has had as few as eight students at one time in the district. All but one of the school districts in Texas are separate from any form of municipal government, hence they are called "independent school districts", or "ISD" for short. School districts may (and often do) cross city and county boundaries. School districts have the power to tax their residents and to use eminent domain. The sole exception to this rule is Stafford Municipal School District, which serves all of the city of Stafford.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has oversight of the public school systems as well as the charter schools. Because of the independent nature of the school districts the TEA's actual jurisdiction is limited. The TEA is divided into twenty Educational Service Center "regions" that serve the local school districts. The Robin Hood plan is a controversial tax redistribution system that provides court-mandated equitable school financing for all school districts in the state. Property tax revenue from property-wealthy school districts is distributed to those in property-poor districts, in an effort to equalize the financing of all districts throughout Texas.
Especially in the metropolitan areas, Texas also has numerous private schools of all types (non-sectarian, Catholic, and Protestant). The TEA has no authority over private school operations; private schools may or may not be accredited, and achievement tests are not required for private school graduating seniors. Many private schools will obtain accreditation and perform achievement tests as a means of encouraging future parents that the school is genuinely interested in educational performance.
It is generally considered to be among the least restrictive states in which to home school. Neither the TEA nor the local school district has authority to regulate home school activities; state law only requires that the curriculum 1) must teach "reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and a study of good citizenship" (the latter interpreted to mean a course in civics) and 2) must be taught in a bona fide manner. There are no minimum number of days in a year, or hours in a day, that must be met, and achievement tests are not required for home school graduating seniors. The validity of home schooling was challenged in Texas, but a landmark case, Leeper v. Arlington ISD, ruled that home schooling was legal and that the state had little or no authority to regulate the practice.
49% of children enrolled in public Pre-K through 12 primary and secondary schools in Texas are classified as Hispanic.Scharrer, Gary. "In schools, a peek at Texas' future." Houston Chronicle. May 16, 2010. Retrieved on May 17, 2010. In the decade from the 1999–2000 school year to the 2009–2010 school year, Hispanics made up 91% of the growth in the state's public K-12 schools. The overall student body increased by 856,061 students, with 775,075 of those students being Hispanic.Scharrer, Gary. "Hispanic children make up 91% of school enrollment growth ." San Antonio Express-Tribune. June 2, 2010. Retrieved on November 6, 2011.
Although unusual in the West, school corporal punishment is not uncommon in more conservative areas of the state, with 28,569 public school studentsPlease note this figure refers to only the number of students paddled, regardless of whether a student was spanked multiple times in a year, and does not refer to the number of instances of corporal punishment, which would be substantially higher. paddled in Texas at least one time during the 2011–2012 school year, according to government data. The rate of school corporal punishment in Texas is surpassed only by Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas.
Textbooks and curriculum The state curriculum in Texas is specified in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which are updated and maintained Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). The state has never adopted the Common Core State Standards Initiative.AL.com: Unlike Alabama, these five states didn't adopt the Common Core. November 12, 2013. The State Board of Education also selects the textbooks that are used in public schools; many other states also use textbooks developed in Texas.
Bias and accuracy Social studies textbooks and curricula in Texas have often been criticized for having a conservative Christian bias and lack of factual accuracy with regards to history and religions, and for portraying Islam and conflicts in the Middle East in a negative manner. Notably, the curriculum for American history teaches that Moses was an important influence on the Founding Fathers. A 2014 report by the Texas Freedom Network also found, among other issues, that the then-proposed American history textbooks downplayed the role of conquest and slavery; gave an inadequate and unbalanced overview of LGBT people and Native Americans; and gave undue praise of laissez-faire capitalism. SBOE panels who select textbooks are rarely teachers or academics, and are chosen in elections with minimal turnout.
In 2021, the state legislature passed Texas House Bill 3979, which bans the teaching of critical race theory. The American Historical Association, among others, expressed concern that the bill's broad scope could lead to omission or whitewashing of controversial race or gender topics in social studies. The Carroll Independent School District school board came under fire for claiming that books about the Holocaust would have to be balanced with ones "that [have] other perspectives" under the new law, though education experts and the district's superintendent disagree that the law will affect the factual accuracy of educational material.
The science curriculum adopted in 2009 was the first to include a full overview of the theory of evolution, but faced backlash after the final version included a loophole that allowed schools to dismiss evolution in favor of creationism. The current 2017 science curriculum in Texas does not mandate the teaching of evolution over creationism, but removed language that was perceived to have discouraged the teaching of evolution. A curriculum approved in 2024 called Bluebonnet Learning includes religious subject matter, like literary analysis of the Sermon on the Mount from the Christian New Testament, which critics charge gives improper preference to religion generally and to one specific religion out of many practiced in the state, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The state of Texas will grant an additional $60 per student to districts that choose to use the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum.
Standardized tests The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) are a series of standardized tests used in Texas primary and secondary schools to assess students' attainment of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies skills required under Texas education standards. It is developed and scored by Pearson Educational Measurement with close supervision by the Texas Education Agency. Though created before the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, it complies with the law. It replaced the previous test, called the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in 2017. The TAKS test replaced the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS test, in 2003.
Public colleges and universities
Texas' controversial alternative affirmative action plan, Texas House Bill 588, guarantees Texas students who graduated in the percent of their high school class automatic admission to state-funded universities. The bill encourages demographic diversity while avoiding problems stemming from the Hopwood v. Texas (1996) case.