The policy research group Texas 2036 analyzed the state’s enrollment data and projected that about 100,000 fewer students would attend public schools by the end of the current decade.
Hispanic students accounted for 81% of this school year’s enrollment drop. Over the past year, federal and state leaders increased anti-immigration rhetoric, in some cases detaining Texas students and prompting fear across communities.
Texas educates 5.5 million public school students, 53% of whom are Hispanic, 24% are white and 13% are Black.
It’s not just ICE here. The Texas education system is 3-years into a takeover by governor Greg Abbott. Under his take-over, quality of education has been plummeting. Just about all day is spent on computers, with writing only graded by AI. The results on education have been devastating. Students are often 3 years behind grade level in all subjects.
Texas parents who care about their kids’ education, and who have the money to pull their kids out, will be sending their kids to private school. This is by design, to justify Greg Abbott’s school voucher program, wherein there are no public schools, and families are instead given a voucher from the state, and told to kick rocks if they can’t afford private school.
This is what conservatives want for the entire country, by the way
Hence why they abolished the Department of Education in 2025; and why Trump’s 2017 pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is known for her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She also had that really awkward testimony with Senator Chris Murphy (representing Newtown) about how schools might need guns to protect kids from “grizzly [bears]”.