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Texas has over 1,000 public school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas areindependent, separate from any form of municipal or county government. School districts may (and often do) cross city and county boundaries. Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. TheTexas Education Agency (TEA) oversees these districts, providing supplemental funding, but its jurisdiction is limited mostly to intervening in poorly performing districts.
35 separate and distinct public universities exist in Texas, of which 32 belong to one of the six state university systems.[citation needed] The Carnegie Foundation classifies 16 of Texas's universities as research universities with very high research activity (Tier One status):Rice University,The University of Texas at Austin,Texas Tech University,University of Houston,University of North Texas,Texas A&M University,University of Texas at Dallas,University of Texas at El Paso,University of Texas at Arlington,University of Texas at San Antonio,Baylor University,Baylor College of Medicine,Southern Methodist University,University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston,University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, andUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Education in Texas began in the late 1830s. In breaking away from Texas 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."[12]
AfterBeauford H. Jester, a Democrat, was re-elected to a second term as governor in 1948, he worked withA. 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 theTexas 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.[13][14]
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.[15]
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 theJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson administrations.[16]
Texas has over 1,000 school districts—ranging in size from the giganticHouston Independent School District to theDivide 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 theschool districts in Texas are separate from any form ofmunicipal 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 totax their residents and to useeminent domain. The sole exception to this rule isStafford Municipal School District, which serves all of the city ofStafford.[17]
TheTexas Education Agency (TEA) has oversight of the public school systems as well as thecharter schools. Because of theindependent 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. TheRobin 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 numerousprivate schools of all types (non-sectarian,Catholic, andProtestant). 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 theleast restrictive states in which tohome 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 incivics) and 2) must be taught in abona fide manner.[18] 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.
As of 2010[update] 49% of children enrolled in public Pre-K through 12 primary and secondary schools in Texas are classified asHispanic.[19] In the decade from the 1999–2000school 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.[20]
Although unusual in the West,school corporal punishment is not uncommon in more conservative areas of the state, with 28,569 public school students[21]paddled in Texas at least one time during the 2011–2012 school year, according to government data.[22] The rate of school corporal punishment in Texas is surpassed only by Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas.[22]
The state curriculum in Texas is specified in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which are updated and maintainedTexas State Board of Education (SBOE).[23] The state has never adopted theCommon Core State Standards Initiative.[24] The State Board of Education also selects the textbooks that are used in public schools;[25] many other states also use textbooks developed in Texas.[26]
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,[27] and for portrayingIslam andconflicts in the Middle East in a negative manner.[28] Notably, the curriculum for American history teaches thatMoses was an important influence on theFounding Fathers.[27] A 2014 report by theTexas 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 ofLGBT people andNative Americans; and gave undue praise oflaissez-faire capitalism.[29] SBOE panels who select textbooks are rarely teachers or academics,[29] and are chosen in elections with minimal turnout.[30]
In 2021, the state legislature passedTexas House Bill 3979, which bans the teaching ofcritical race theory.[31] TheAmerican 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.[32] TheCarroll Independent School District school board came under fire for claiming that books aboutthe 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.[31]
The science curriculum adopted in 2009 was the first to include a full overview of the theory ofevolution, but faced backlash after the final version included a loophole that allowed schools to dismiss evolution in favor ofcreationism.[33] 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.[34][35] A curriculum approved in 2024 called Bluebonnet Learning includes religious subject matter, like literary analysis of theSermon on the Mount from the ChristianNew 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 theEstablishment Clause of theU.S. Constitution.[36] The state of Texas will grant an additional $60 per student to districts that choose to use the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum.[37]
TheState of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) are a series ofstandardized tests used inTexasprimary andsecondary schools to assess students' attainment ofreading,writing,math,science, andsocial 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 theNo Child Left Behind Act was passed, it complies with the law. It replaced the previous test, called theTexas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in 2017.[38] The TAKS test replaced theTexas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS test, in 2003.
Texas' controversial alternative affirmative action plan,Texas House Bill 588, guarantees Texas students who graduated in thetop 10 percent of their high school class automatic admission to state-funded universities. The bill encourages demographic diversity while avoiding problems stemming from theHopwood v. Texas (1996) case.
Thirty-five (35) separate and distinct public universities exist in Texas, of which 33 belong to one of the six state university systems.[39][40] Discovery of minerals onPermanent University Fund land, particularly oil, has helped fund the rapid growth of the state's two largest university systems:The University of Texas System and theTexas A&M System. The five other university systems: theUniversity of Houston System, theUniversity of North Texas System, theTexas State System, theTexas Tech System, and the Texas Woman's University System are not funded by the Permanent University Fund.
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Both the University of Texas and Texas A&M University were established by the Texas Constitution and hold stakes in the Permanent University Fund. The state has been putting effort to expand the number of flagship universities by elevating some of its seven institutions designated asemerging research universities. The two that are expected to emerge first are the University of Houston and Texas Tech University, likely in that order according to discussions on the House floor of the 82nd Texas Legislature.[41]
The University of Houston System has four separate and distinct institutions; each institution is a stand-alone university and confers its own degrees. Its flagship institution is theUniversity of Houston, a research university.[1][2][3] The three other institutions in the System arestand-alone universities; they are not branch campuses of the University of Houston.
The flagship institution of the System, the University of Houston, ranks No. 189 in the National University Rankings ofU.S. News & World Report, and No. 106 among top public universities.[42][43]
The University of Houston System's annual impact on the Texas economy equates to that of a major corporation: $1.1 billion in new funds attracted annually to Texas, $3.13 billion in total economic benefit, and 24,000 local jobs generated.[44][45] This is in addition to the 12,500 new graduates the UH System produces every year who enter the workforce throughout Texas.[45]
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TheUniversity of North Texas System (UNT System) has three schools in theNorth Texas region, all of which are in theDallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
The flagship institution is theUniversity of North Texas (UNT) located inDenton. UNT is the largest university in the Metroplex and third largest in the state. The fields taught at UNT focus on such areas as business management, education, engineering,hospitality,music and science.
The UNT System also oversees theUniversity of North Texas at Dallas, the only public university located in thecity limits ofDallas, and theUniversity of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, the only college in Texas that specializes inosteopathic medicine.
The University of Texas System, established by theTexas Constitution in 1883, consists of eightacademicuniversities and six health institutions, with a seventh health institution to be established and a ninth academic institution to be added in the near future. UT System institutions enrolled a total of 182,752 students in fall 2004 making it one of the largest systems ofhigher education in the nation. In 2018, the system's flagship and largest institution,University of Texas at Austin, maintained an enrollment of 51,832 students.[46] The University of Texas at Austin was once the largest institution in the United States, but it is now one of the top 10 largest by population. It is ranked as the 34th best global university byU.S. News & World Report.[47] Sevendoctoral programs at UT Austin rank in the top 10 in the nation and 22 degree programs rank in the top 25, according to a comprehensive study of the quality of graduate schools conducted by theUnited States National Research Council. Six of the 12 medical schools of Texas are within theUniversity of Texas System. In 2004, theUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas was ranked the 12th highest ranking medical school in the United States, with four of Texas's 11Nobel laureates.[48]
Stephen F. Austin State University inNacogdoches, which operates one of two schools of forestry and the only one in the state's main timber-producing region ofEast Texas, joined the University of Texas System in 2023.
The Texas A&M University System, established by the 1871 Texas legislature, is the largest state university system of higher learning in Texas. Its flagship institution,Texas A&M University located in College Station, opened in 1876, is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and, at over 62,000 students, has the largest student enrollment in the state of Texas.[49] As opposed to the University of Texas System, which is primarily focused in urban centers, the Texas A&M System generally serves rural areas of the state.
Prairie View A&M University is a historically black university located in Prairie View, Texas (northwest of Houston) and is a member of the Texas A&M University System. PVAMU offers baccalaureate degrees in 50 academic majors, 37 master's degrees and four doctoral degree programs through nine colleges and schools. Founded in 1876, Prairie View A&M University is the second oldest state-sponsored institution of higher education in Texas.[50][51]
The Texas State University System, created in 1911 to oversee the state'snormal schools (teachers' colleges), is the oldest multi-system University System inTexas.[52] The system is the only one of the six Texasstate university systems to be a horizontal system: it does not have a flagship institution and considers every campus to be unique in its own way.[53] Over the years, several member schools have been moved to other university systems. Today, the system encompasses seven institutions;Texas State University, located halfway betweenAustin andSan Antonio inSan Marcos, Texas, is the largest university in the system with an enrollment of 38,694 students.[54]Lamar University located inBeaumont, Texas and previously in its own system, joined the TSUS in 1995.[55] It boast an enrollment of 14,384 students as of spring 2010 and is most notable for its highly respectedengineering program.[56]Sam Houston State University located inHuntsville, Texas is the 2nd largest university in the TSUS with 18,478 students and is home to one of the world's largest and best Criminal Justice Programs.
The Texas Tech University System was established in 1996, though the system's oldest institution, was founded in 1923. The system comprises four separate universities, of which two are academic institutions:Angelo State University andTexas Tech University, and two are health institutions:Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, andTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso.
Texas Tech University, founded asTexas Technological College in 1923, is the system's flagship institution located inLubbock. The institution originally comprised only four schools: Agriculture, Engineering, Home Economics, and Liberal Arts. Today, the university includes eleven academic colleges, a graduate school and a school of law. The campus in Lubbock is shared with theTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
In 1969, a separate university named the Texas Tech University School of Medicine (nowTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC)), was founded as a multi-campus institution with Lubbock as the administrative center and with regional campuses atAmarillo, El Paso, andOdessa. The university was expanded to include nursing, pharmacy, and allied health sciences programs in 1979. The university has expanded to include campuses inAbilene, andDallas.
In 2007,Angelo State University joined the Texas Tech University System leaving theTexas State University System, which it had been a member of since 1975.
On May 18, 2013, the former branch campus of TTUHSC in El Paso was established as theTexas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) a separate university from TTUHSC with schools of medicine and nursing.
On August 6, 2020, the Texas Tech University System andMidwestern State University agreed to a memorandum of understanding to begin the process of MSU Texas becoming the fifth university to join the system. The process was completed on June 8, 2021, when GovernorGreg Abbott signed HB 1522 into law.
On May 26, 2021, Texas Woman's University was established as theTexas Woman's University system according to a bill signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott.[57] This law headquarters the system inDenton and allows the former Dallas and Houston Centers to become autonomous campuses.
The state also operates theTexas State Technical College System, a group of two-year technical colleges located throughout the state. System headquarters are co-located with the flagship campus inWaco.
Several community colleges operate throughout the state of Texas. Although the state has established territorial jurisdictions for each college, the colleges themselves are governed by local boards of trustees, and are financed mainly through local property taxes.
The taxing area and the jurisdiction are not necessarily the same in all cases. As an example, the jurisdiction ofNorth Central Texas College includes the counties of Cooke, Denton, and Montague, but only Cooke County property is subject to the property tax assessment. On the other hand, the jurisdiction and tax base forTarrant County College are the same: Tarrant County.
Institutions of higher education includeAustin Presbyterian Theological Seminary,Concordia University Texas,Huston–Tillotson University,St. Edward's University, theSeminary of the Southwest, theActon School of Business,Austin Graduate School of Theology,Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary,Virginia College's Austin Campus,The Art Institute of Austin, and a branch ofPark University.
Howard Payne University is a Baptist university inBrownwood, Texas. In 1953 it absorbedDaniel Baker College, a Presbyterian college inBrownwood
InAbilene areHardin–Simmons University (Baptist),McMurry University (Methodist), andAbilene Christian University (Churches of Christ).Belton has TheUniversity of Mary Hardin–Baylor (Baptist).
Southwestern University is a private university inGeorgetown. It originated in four different Methodist schools from 1840 to 1865. They merged in 1873.[58]
TheDallas–Fort Worth metroplex is home toUniversity of Dallas (Catholic);Texas Wesleyan University (Methodist);Texas Christian University (Disciples of Christ);Dallas Baptist University;Southern Methodist University; andPaul Quinn College (Methodist).
Austin College (Presbyterian) chartered in 1849, is inSherman, 60 miles north of Dallas.
Rice University was founded in 1912 as a non-sectarian institution.
TheUniversity of St. Thomas (Catholic) was founded in 1947.Houston Christian University (Baptist) was founded in 1960.
Lubbock Christian University is a Churches of Christ university inLubbock.
Wayland Baptist University is located inPlainview. It operates campuses in Amarillo, Lubbock, San Antonio, and Wichita Falls, It also maintains campuses out of Texas in Albuquerque, NM; Altus, OK; Anchorage, AK; Clovis, NM; Fairbanks, AK; Mililani, HI; Phoenix, AZ; and Sierra Vista, AZ. Several of the campuses have satellite locations in other cities in their area and on many of the military bases nearby. The university also offers courses in American Samoa, Kenya, and on-line.[59]
Private universities in the area areTexas Lutheran University;Trinity University (Presbyterian); and the Catholics schoolsSt. Mary's University,University of the Incarnate Word, andOur Lady of the Lake University.
Huston–Tillotson University;Jarvis Christian University;Paul Quinn College;Prairie View A&M University;Southwestern Christian College;St. Philip's College;Texas College;Texas Southern University; andWiley University. Defunct HBCU includeBishop College;Guadalupe College.[60]
Texas has three presidential libraries: theLyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum atThe University of Texas at Austin, theGeorge Bush Presidential Library atTexas A&M University, and theGeorge W. Bush Presidential Center atSouthern Methodist University.[61]
Texas is home to several research medical centers. The state has 12allopathicmedical schools,[62] threeosteopathic medical schools, four dental schools, and twooptometry schools.[63] Texas has twoBiosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories: one atThe University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston,[64] and the other at theSouthwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio—the first privately owned BSL-4 lab in the United States.[65]
TheTexas Medical Center, in Houston, is the world's largest concentration ofresearch andhealthcare institutions, with 45 member institutions in the Texas Medical Center, includingMcGovern Medical School.[66] More heart transplants are performed atTexas Medical Center than anywhere else in the world.[67] San Antonio'sSouth Texas Medical Center facilities rank sixth in clinical medicine research impact in theUnited States.[68]The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is one of the world's highly regarded academic institutions devoted to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention.[69]
The Texas Digital Library is a consortium of institutions of higher education in the state of Texas.[70] The consortium provides an infrastructure for scholarly activity of its members.[71] Support currentlyincludes an Electronic Theses and Dissertations system and Institutional Repository support.[72]
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