A while back, I wrote about the history of public education in Texas. But recently I started wondering about something a little more specific: when did Texas public schools go from being something people bragged about to something politicians seem determined to starve, test, rank, privatize, and then act shocked when things go sideways?
I was born in Texas, but I grew up in New Mexico. And when I was a kid, New Mexicans were jealous of two things in Texas: the roads and the schools. Seriously. Texas had a reputation. You crossed the state line, and suddenly the highways were smoother, and people talked about Texas schools like they were doing something right.
So naturally I thought, when did that change?
And off I went down another rabbit hole.
Lucky you. You’re coming with me.
Photo by John Cardamone
Laying the Foundation: The 1980s
Let’s start in the early 1980s, when Texas leaders looked at public education and said, basically, “Yeah, we need to fix this.”
Governor Mark White, a Democrat, made public education one of his biggest priorities. He appointed businessman Ross Perot to lead a commission studying Texas schools, and that work led to one of the biggest education reform packages in state history: House Bill 72 in 1984.
HB 72 raised teacher pay, tightened certification standards, reduced class sizes in early grades, increased assistance to poorer districts, expanded statewide testing and accountability, strengthened attendance rules, and created the famous “No Pass, No Play” policy.
Translation: Texas decided that if we wanted better schools, we might actually have to invest in teachers, set standards, and make sure poor school districts weren’t just left out there eating dust.
Wild concept.
At the same time, Texas was being forced to confront another uncomfortable truth: where you lived had way too much to do with the quality of education you received.
Edgewood ISD and other property-poor school districts sued the state, arguing that Texas’s school funding system was fundamentally unfair. In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court agreed and ruled the system unconstitutional.
That kicked off years of lawsuits, legislative rewrites, and increasingly creative attempts to answer a question Texas still hasn’t fully solved:
How do you fund public schools fairly in a state where some school districts sit on enormous property wealth, and others do not?
Under Governor Ann Richards, Texas continued working on school finance reform. In 1993, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 7, creating the equalization system that eventually became known as “Robin Hood.” Wealthier districts were required to share revenue or otherwise reduce their taxable wealth per student.
People can argue forever about the details of Robin Hood, and believe me, Texans have made a competitive sport out of doing exactly that. But the principle behind it was pretty simple:
A child’s educational opportunity shouldn’t depend entirely on whether their ZIP code has million-dollar homes or cattle trailers.
Then Something Interesting Happened: Texas Got Better
Here is the part of Texas education history we almost never talk about.
Texas started getting really good results.
The state began posting impressive improvements on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card.
Texas’s fourth-grade math score went from 218 in 1992 to 229 in 1996 and 231 in 2000. By 1996, Texas students were scoring about six points above the national public-school average in fourth-grade math. Texas also gained national attention for narrowing racial achievement gaps.
So whenever someone says, “Texas schools have always been terrible,” nope.
That is simply not true.
Texas proved that a huge, diverse, rapidly growing state could make major academic gains.
And those gains didn’t belong to one political party.
Mark White’s reforms mattered. Ann Richards’s school finance work mattered. George W. Bush’s accountability reforms mattered.
That’s an important part of this story, because public education in Texas used to be something Democrats and Republicans actually competed to improve.
Imagine that.
1995: George W. Bush Restructures the System
In 1995, Texas rewrote large portions of its Education Code through Senate Bill 1.
The law returned more authority to local school districts, expanded state accountability, gave the governor authority to appoint the education commissioner, established the State Board for Educator Certification and created the modern charter-school framework.
Charter schools began enrolling students in 1996–97.
At first, they were a relatively small experiment. Today? Not so small.
By the 2024–25 school year, Texas had 959 state-authorized charter campuses serving more than 436,000 students. By 2026, that figure was roughly 446,600 students, or about 8 percent of Texas public-school enrollment.
So over time, Texas didn’t just maintain one public education system.
It built competing systems. And that matters later.
A lot.
The Rick Perry Years: Enter Property Tax Politics
By the early 2000s, another big shift was happening.
School finance increasingly became tied to one of Texas politicians’ favorite campaign promises:
Property tax cuts.
Governor Rick Perry called a special session in 2006 after another school-finance lawsuit reached the Texas Supreme Court. Texas substantially reduced school district maintenance-and-operations property tax rates, cutting them by roughly 11 percent in 2007 and about 33 percent by 2008.
The state tried to replace some of that lost local revenue through a redesigned business franchise tax and other sources.
And this is where Texas created a problem that would follow us for the next two decades.
We wanted lower local school taxes.
We wanted rapidly growing schools.
We wanted more accountability.
We wanted higher standards.
We wanted great teachers.
We wanted new technology.
We wanted better outcomes.
And we wanted all of this while constantly talking about how much money we could take out of the system.
That math was eventually going to math. And not in a good way.
Interestingly, Texas didn’t immediately fall apart academically.
During the 2000s, fourth-grade math remained a Texas strength. NAEP math scores were 237 in 2003, 242 in 2005, 242 in 2007 and 240 in 2009. Texas remained above the national average for much of that period.
Reading was another story.
Texas was never quite the reading superstar it was in math.
That distinction matters because Texas public education was never simply “great” or “terrible.”
Some things were working.
Other things absolutely were not.
Then Came 2011
If you are looking for one giant flashing warning sign in modern Texas education history, 2011 is it.
Facing a state budget shortfall, the Republican-controlled Legislature cut approximately $5.4 billion from public education.
And Texas was not shrinking. Texas was booming. More people were moving here. More children were entering public schools. Districts were growing.
And then the Legislature chopped billions out of the system.
The effects were immediate.
In the first year alone, about 25,000 school employees disappeared, including nearly 11,000 teachers. Districts had been adding roughly 83,000 students per year, yet eliminated more than 10,000 teaching positions.
Think about that for a second.
More kids.
Fewer teachers.
What could possibly go wrong?
Districts reported larger class sizes, fewer teachers, cuts to tutoring, fewer electives, reduced pre-K services, cuts to special education, and fewer teacher-support positions.
This is one of the most important turning points in the entire story.
Texas wasn’t just asking schools to become more accountable.
Texas was asking them to do more with significantly less.
And Then We Gave Everybody STAAR Tests
Because apparently cutting billions out of schools wasn’t enough excitement, Texas rolled out the STAAR testing system in 2012.
Students, teachers and campuses faced increasingly consequential standardized testing requirements.
So the state essentially said:
“We’re cutting your funding.”
Also:
“Here are tougher tests.”
And:
“We will judge you based on the results.”
Cool.
Cool cool cool.
Hundreds of Texas school districts eventually sued the state, arguing in part that Texas was raising expectations without providing sufficient resources to meet them.
By 2013 and 2015, lawmakers restored much of the money cut in 2011. But restoring money doesn’t magically undo years of disruption. By 2015, traditional school districts still employed about 3,700 fewer teachers than before the cuts, even though enrollment had grown.
Think of it this way:
If someone removes your roof for two years and eventually gives you back most of the shingles, you can’t really say, “See? Problem solved.”
There has been weather inside the house.
Photo by CDC
Greg Abbott Takes Office
Greg Abbott became governor in January 2015. And at first, Texas still had some genuine academic strengths.
In 2015, Texas fourth graders scored 244 in math, about four points above the national public-school average.
But reading continued to struggle. Texas fourth-grade reading scores went from 220 in 2007 to 218 in 2011, 218 in 2015, 215 in 2017 and 216 in 2019.
Not exactly a victory parade.
Then came another accountability overhaul.
In 2017, lawmakers passed HB 22, creating the A–F accountability system. Campus ratings began in 2018. Supporters argued the grades made school performance easier for parents to understand. Critics argued the system put too much weight on standardized tests and frequently reflected student poverty as much as school quality.
And frankly, both arguments can be true.
2019: Texas Finally Puts Some Real Money Back In
Credit where credit is due.
House Bill 3 in 2019 was a significant public-school investment.
Abbott signed legislation providing new school finance funding, teacher pay increases, increased funding for high-needs students, and property tax relief. The state’s basic allotment eventually reached $6,160 per student in average daily attendance.
That was good.
The problem was what happened next.
Or more accurately, what did not happen next.
The basic allotment basically sat there.
Meanwhile, inflation showed up like an unwanted relative who announces at Thanksgiving that they’ll be staying through New Year’s.
Electricity got more expensive.
Fuel got more expensive.
Insurance got more expensive.
Buses got more expensive.
Food got more expensive.
Construction got more expensive.
Employee benefits got more expensive.
Instructional materials got more expensive.
Salaries needed to go up because teachers also enjoy luxuries like food and housing. And yet the core per-student funding formula barely moved.
School districts cannot simply raise prices when costs go up.
There is no superintendent standing outside the elementary school saying, “Sorry folks, inflation. Third grade is now $14.99.”
They depend on the Legislature.
Then COVID Hit
In 2020, the entire country got punched in the face.
Schools closed. Remote learning took over. Attendance changed. Families were stressed. Students lost instructional time. Teachers burned out.
By 2022, national NAEP results showed the largest reading decline since 1990 and the first-ever decline in mathematics on the long-term trend assessment.
Texas was not immune.
And this is important: not every decline after 2020 can honestly be blamed on Greg Abbott, Republicans, Democrats, vouchers, charter schools, or your least favorite school board member. COVID was a massive national educational disruption.
But the policy question after COVID was simple:
How aggressively would Texas reinvest in its public schools to help them recover?
And that is where this story gets political again.
The Debate Changes
By 2023, Texas had billions of dollars available. But public-school funding became tangled up with Governor Abbott’s push for Education Savings Accounts, better known to most Texans as school vouchers.
The Texas House repeatedly resisted Abbott’s proposal, with opposition coming from Democrats and a significant group of rural Republicans. And something had fundamentally changed in the Texas education debate.
For much of the 20th century, the argument was:
How do we make public schools better?
By the 2020s, one of the biggest education debates in Texas had become:
How do we help families leave them?
Those are not the same policy philosophies. Not even close.
Meanwhile, Texas Lost Its Academic Edge
Remember when Texas fourth graders were outperforming the national average in math?
In 1996, Texas was six points above the national public-school average.
In 2005, it was five points above.
In 2015, four points above.
By the 2020s, that historic advantage had largely disappeared.
Reading remained particularly weak.
Texas’s 2024 fourth-grade reading score was 212, about two points below the national public-school average.
That matters.
Texas once distinguished itself by outperforming the country. Now the state is trying to claw its way back.
2025: Vouchers Finally Pass
After years of trying, Greg Abbott finally got his voucher program.
He signed Senate Bill 2 on May 3, 2025, creating a statewide Education Savings Account program allowing taxpayer dollars to be used for approved private-school and education expenses.
The Legislature initially authorized up to $1 billion for the 2026–27 biennium.
The program can provide roughly $10,000 for private-school students, with higher amounts for certain students with disabilities and smaller payments for some homeschool expenses.
That represents one of the largest philosophical shifts in Texas education history. For generations, the question was:
How do we adequately fund every public-school student?
Now the question is also:
How much public money should follow students outside the public-school system?
And here is where a lot of public-school people start grinding their teeth.
While private-school students can receive roughly $10,000, the public-school basic allotment moved from about $6,160 to $6,215. Not even close to the private school allotment.
That is not exactly making it rain.
Texas Says It Wants Great Schools. Its Checkbook Has Questions.
By 2026, the average Texas teacher salary was estimated at $63,749.
The national average was about $74,495.
Texas ranked around 33rd in average teacher pay.
And Texas ranked roughly 47th in per-student spending, at about $12,815 per student.
So whenever someone says Texas wants to be a national leader in public education, I have one small follow-up question:
Does Texas actually spend like a state that wants the best public schools in America?
Because ranking 47th in spending while talking about becoming Top 5 in achievement is a little like announcing you’re training for the Olympics while refusing to buy running shoes. We aren’t even equipped to be in the race.
Then Enrollment Starts Dropping
In 2026, Texas public schools recorded their first non-pandemic enrollment decline in nearly four decades.
The state had roughly 76,000 fewer students enrolled during the 2025–26 school year.
And no, it isn’t all because of vouchers.
The causes include declining birth rates, changing demographics, immigration fears and enforcement, homeschooling, private schooling, charter competition, population shifts and lasting pandemic-era changes.
But this matters enormously because Texas funds schools largely based on student attendance and enrollment formulas.
Fewer students can mean less revenue.
Less revenue can mean cuts.
Cuts can mean school consolidations, fewer electives, larger classes and fewer services. That can make more families leave.
Which means even less revenue.
Congratulations, you have now created the public-school version of a hamster wheel, except the hamster is a superintendent trying to balance a budget.
So What the Hell Happened?
After looking at 40 years of Texas public education history, the answer is not one governor, one party, one test, or one bill.
It’s a series of choices.
Texas proved during the 1980s and 1990s that investment and reform could work. Leaders raised teacher pay, equalized funding, increased accountability, and invested in improving schools. Those policies coincided with major academic gains.
Then Texas increasingly prioritized property-tax compression while trying to educate a rapidly growing student population.
Then came the 2011 cuts.
Then testing and accountability increased while resources tightened.
Then the basic allotment stopped keeping pace with actual costs.
Then Texas built competing systems: traditional public schools, a massive charter-school sector, and now a statewide private-school voucher program.
And today Texas ranks near the bottom nationally in per-student spending while saying it wants to become one of the best education states in America.
Here’s the thing.
Texas knows how to build good public schools because Texas already did it.
This isn’t some theoretical idea.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Democrats and Republicans treated public education as infrastructure. They fought about how to improve it, how to equalize it, how to measure it, and how to invest in it.
Somewhere along the way, the question changed.
It went from:
How do we make Texas public schools the best?
to:
How cheaply can we run them, how much can we cut school property taxes, and how many alternatives can we create?
And now Texas is spending near the bottom of the country while expecting Top-5 results.
That is not an education strategy.
That’s asking for champagne schools on a Lone Star budget.
And maybe that’s the biggest lesson in all of this. Texas public schools didn’t suddenly forget how to educate kids. Texas changed what it was willing to invest in them. We know Texas can do better.
Because Texas already did.
The question now is whether our leaders want to build great public schools again, or whether they’ve decided managing their decline is good enough.
For Texas kids, teachers, parents, and communities, it shouldn’t be.
And as I type this, my son’s school district is about to be taken over by the state of Texas; our school district closed 10 campuses, and my son has 40 kids in each of his core classes. Desks barely fit in the classroom. They cut languages, art, pe, sports, choir, band, and theatre, and so many things that make school fun. A parent walked by my house the other day and said, “So glad my son is graduating this year; we may make it before state takeover.” Our family is not as lucky.
Yours in resistance,
Nancy Thompson
Nancy, thank you for this excellent historical account of the erosion of the Texas public education system. I appreciate the work you put into preparing and sharing this valuable information.
Thank you for the great summary. My daughter is an elementary school art teacher and she is not being paid a living wage. I am helping to buy her groceries every week.