Education in Texas
Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property.
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.
Because of these changes, Texas universities received federal funds for research and development during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.
The TEA is divided into twenty Educational Service Center "regions" that serve the local school districts.
Especially in the metropolitan areas, Texas also has numerous private schools of all types (non-sectarian, Catholic, and Protestant).
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.
As of 2010[update] 49% of children enrolled in public Pre-K through 12 primary and secondary schools in Texas are classified as Hispanic.
[15] The rate of school corporal punishment in Texas is surpassed only by Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas.
[19] 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,[20] and for portraying Islam and conflicts in the Middle East in a negative manner.
[21] Notably, the curriculum for American history teaches that Moses was an important influence on the Founding Fathers.
[20] 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.
[22] SBOE panels who select textbooks are rarely teachers or academics,[22] and are chosen in elections with minimal turnout.
[23] In 2021, the state legislature passed Texas House Bill 3979, which bans the teaching of critical race theory.
[24] 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.
[25] 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 bill encourages demographic diversity while avoiding problems stemming from the Hopwood v. Texas (1996) case.
[33][34] 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.
The fields taught at UNT focus on such areas as business management, education, engineering, hospitality, music and science.
In 2018, the system's flagship and largest institution, University of Texas at Austin, maintained an enrollment of 51,832 students.
[38] Seven doctoral 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 the United States National Research Council.
Founded in 1876, Prairie View A&M University is the second oldest state-sponsored institution of higher education in Texas.
[43] Lamar University located in Beaumont, Texas and previously in its own system, joined the TSUS in 1995.
The institution originally comprised only four schools: Agriculture, Engineering, Home Economics, and Liberal Arts.
On May 26, 2021, Texas Woman's University was established as the Texas Woman's University system according to a bill signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott[46] This law headquarters the system in Denton and allows the former Dallas and Houston Centers to become autonomous campuses.
The 735-acre (2.97 km2) campus is located just southeast of downtown Waco, roughly bounded by Interstate 35, Speight Avenue, Eighth Street and the Brazos River.
The school is named after Texas hero Stephen F. Austin, who along with his sister Emily, deeded 1,500 acres (6 km2) of land to the college.
Another important figure in Texas history, Sam Houston, served on the original board of trustees for the school.
The small undergraduate student body has one of the highest percentages of National Merit Scholarship winners in the United States.
Former UST President Archbishop J. Michael Miller currently serves in the Roman Curia as the prefect of Catholic universities throughout the world.
[54] San Antonio's South Texas Medical Center facilities rank sixth in clinical medicine research impact in the United States.
