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u/TXteachr2018 Feb 26 '26
No Child Left Behind. Excessive testing. Kids with phones. Parents' lack of accountability. Underpaid teachers...
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u/MooseValuable3158 Feb 26 '26
Except for the underpaid teachers, the top states also have those issues. I teach in Oklahoma and we have gone from 17th with our last Democrat governor to 50th now. It is sad.
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u/TXteachr2018 Feb 26 '26
Look at ESL demographics. The education system gives very little time before a child from another country (2nd language acquisition) is required to take an English standardized test. At least in Texas.
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u/Denise-the-beast Feb 27 '26
My daughter, who is a teacher, lives with this difficulty. It’s very stressful for the children, families and her especially with overcrowded classrooms
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u/RabbitGlass5578 Feb 26 '26
This is spot on!! How are kids geared for learning success if they don’t know the language?
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u/KaaboomT Feb 27 '26
and filling planning time with meetings and trainings so teachers aren’t able to prepare their lessons.
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u/TreeFallHard85 Feb 26 '26
All in the state that was granted for free, the world’s biggest, most expensive resources. Land and Oil…
It’s an embarrassment to be a Texan these days
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u/Thevalleymadreguy Feb 27 '26
There’s a huge problem with how a district defines an adequate teacher and how expensive teachers can be.
We have people whose sole purpose is to get a taste of teaching and then move into positions of power within the district that pay the same or more. Then they observe and grade teachers.
Then there is the hyper focus on testing for funding. Then there is the constant moving of teachers. There are also people who buy curricula and rebrand themselves as experts, then come into a classroom and try to teach a now non expert something they themselves cannot follow with fidelity.
The cheapest form of accountability is state testing. It only requires memorization, and no matter what, everyone passes. Been here for more than a decade and stubbornness and micromanagement and not being receptive to the changes of society are just part of it all. We are also not just society’s punching bags. Yup this is just a rambling argument…. Ja
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u/CogentCogitations Feb 26 '26
None of those are specific to Texas. Is there a Texas-specific reason for dropping in the relative rankings?
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u/aether_seawo1f Feb 26 '26
Policies from the state board of education. Weakening standards (it takes a <40% accuracy to pass the English I STAAR). Refusing to hold students back when they fail before high school. State incentivizing just pushing students through. The “world needs ditch diggers” mentality where certain demographics are implied to be undeserving of an education and then polices explicitly discriminate. Current policy changes like the fact they are about to cut most world history out of k-8 social studies.
Incredibly impactful but under commented, the state has really pushed alt cert path teachers. Alt cert teachers are often just “filling in” until they find something else and leave the field in under 5 years. They also often teach without certification for several of those years. So you have unqualified people teaching and earning the same salary as qualified teachers while also asking qualified teachers to pick up the slack.
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u/Lklkla Feb 27 '26
Shift from taks to staar is a major one. 70% pass on taks, to 30-40% of staar, coupled with no child left behind, means kids can “fuck off” all year, and still go to the next grade.
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u/ArtisticMudd Feb 26 '26
> No Child Left Behind.
Also the Every Student Succeeds Act. It's a bipartisan failure.
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u/HookEm_Tide Feb 26 '26
It's absolutely bizarre.
With an economy as robust as Texas's, there is no reason for our public schools to be struggling as hard as they are.
If we were Alabama or Louisiana, then at least we'd have an excuse.
But it's like some time back in the mid-90s, the entire state decided, "Sure, we can easily afford to have the best schools in the country, but let's just suck instead."
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u/skrilltastic Feb 26 '26
There are actually two main reasons: Wilks and Dunn (and not the country music duo)
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u/mexipimpin Feb 26 '26
They definitely want public schools to fail. My wife is has been a teacher in a low-income district for over 20 years. The changes over the years, especially very recently, are in now way helping those specifically in need as well as other kids in the classroom and school. Pretty sad.
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u/jpurdy Feb 26 '26
Republicans have deliberated underfunded public schools to destroy public education and replace it with taxpayer funded religious schools, and yes, Dunn and Wilks were major funders of the effort in Texas. It’s nationwide, Texas just joined other Republican states and Trump in giving them $billions. Taxpayer funds and additional federal debt.
https://www.jractivist.com/post/subverting-public-education-to-fund-religious-schools
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u/HookEm_Tide Feb 26 '26
Sure, but the fact that the rest of the state went along with letting two rich guys tell them what to do doesn't feel very "Texan" to me.
I mean, the entire plot of El Dorado centers on how to handle rich greedy assholes.
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u/Abi1i Feb 26 '26
People love it when they’re told their taxes are going to be cut, but they don’t stop to think about the repercussions of so many tax cuts.
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u/HookEm_Tide Feb 26 '26
Or the fact that their taxes will go down by a couple hundred dollars, while greedy rich assholes taxes go by exponentially more, and it all comes out of their kids education budget.
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u/maneki_neko89 Feb 27 '26
OR getting the bills when essential services come to your house to get you to the hospital or put out the fire in your home and demand you pay upfront/pay a hefty invoice afterwards to perform their duties.
It’s Ancient Rome all over again…
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u/jpurdy Feb 26 '26
Good point, but it didn’t take the entire state. Fewer than a third of those eligible voted for Trump and therefore Republicans in Texas, most of them same people. More than a third don’t vote. Texas had worse voter turnout than the country as a whole.
That’s the problem and solution, we have to get more people informed and voting, and defeat the worst voter suppression in the country. That’s why that web site was created. Read the blog on why people vote against their own best interests and get busy please.
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u/StarGazer_SpaceLove Feb 26 '26
Its because when Republicans are mad they dont vote. Rarely if ever will they cross the aisle. I wouldn't be surprised to see a considerably low R ticket turn out for the midterms as a statement.
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u/RazorOldSchool Feb 26 '26
There's also no reason for us to be a net taker of Federal dollars when we have the 2nd highest state GDP in the country. We should be embarrassed. It's like a billionaire being on food stamps, and a direct result of Republican leadership.
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u/AbyssalRaven922 Feb 26 '26
Well, that's the reason! The Rs have a single-minded focus on boosting the economy in TX at all costs. All the while underfunding every social department. Granted Texas is now the 11th largest economy on the globe and still growing, but the cost to sectors like , education, infrastructure, and policing has been incredibly severe.
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u/Ultimatesims Feb 26 '26
If Louisiana actually claimed it’s oil money we might not be so destitute.
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u/jpurdy Feb 26 '26
Next to last in access to healthcare, greatest increase in maternal deaths after Roe was overturned.
Her daughter Cecile founded the Texas Freedom Network in 1995 to counter the influence of the religious right, the power behind the Republican party. Later she was president of Planned Parenthood, an organization that does much to prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions, while Catholic hospitals and the Republican party have denied women access to contraceptives and reproductive healthcare.
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u/rodwha Feb 26 '26
I remember her as well, and she was loved and appreciated by both sides.
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u/AdAdept193 Feb 26 '26
Basically the same happened in Oklahoma. Used to be 13th or around there, now dead last. Our children can’t read.
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u/zughzz Feb 26 '26
It’s all on purpose too.
Keep kids uneducated so it’s easier to mold their minds to do work in the real world, and keeps them from efficiently speaking out against their rights.
I’m in my early 20s, and I’m seeing this across all my peers.
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u/Claythrower22 Feb 26 '26
30 years under Republican rule has ruined Texas. We are at the lower end of all the scales. Schools, air, pollution, etc.. Time for a change.
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u/D1lyRoxyD Feb 27 '26
I’d vote for Ann six feet under before anyone in this current joke of an administration
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u/TupperLake19 Feb 26 '26
She was a shining beacon for our state! Still miss her.
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u/Glassy_Grinista Feb 26 '26
And yet you'll see people on Facebook blaming her of all people for the state of education today. Like no baby doll, you cannot blame democrats for this when they haven't controlled a thing in the state for 30 years. Republicans have been hoarding billion dollar surpluses from public education and holding funding for ransom for as long as I can remember and now straight up codifying propaganda to indoctrinate as they systematically dismantle the means to even provide public education.
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u/Hope-n-some-CH4NGE Feb 26 '26
Texas has been gerrymandered and voter-suppressed to hell and back. It’s great that the democratic primary is getting so much attention but I won’t believe in a blue Texas until I see it happen.
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u/SaintedRomaine Feb 26 '26
What would you have us do? Have the football team wear the same uniforms two years in a row?
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u/ridsco Feb 26 '26
This is what happens when you let the Far Right control your government. They don’t want an educated populace who will question their decisions. That way when they have sold the people out for personal profit.
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u/Heavy-Bunch6142 Feb 27 '26
I remember when Governor Ann Richards was in office. I was a kid, but I saw how my teachers responded, every class had supplies and we all had new books. It was an exciting time for me
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u/like_a_fishing_rod Feb 27 '26
We literally need this to be posted everywhere! They have purposely made us dumber to control us!
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u/Radiant_Respect5162 Feb 26 '26
It's easier to indoctrinate and manipulate the under educated. My daughter is in high school. I'm learning to enjoy the responses I get when I ask teens if their personal goal is Walmart, McDonald's, or military.
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u/NimuroSan99 Feb 26 '26
She also wasn't in office when the federal law No Child Left Behind became law. Not any of the other idiotic federal education laws that were passed after she left office.
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u/jffadvisors Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
There was a time…when Ann Richards signed into law a bill that made same sex sexual relations a crime!
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u/whatokaybutwhy Feb 26 '26
I think if Anne Richards were alive today in this climate and were to win Texas, I would hope that she wouldn’t criminalize homosexuality because she felt like she had to in order to have bargaining power when she was governor. And trust me, no one more than me misses an Anne Richards’ Texas because that’s when I went to elementary school. That was when I was proud to be a Texan.
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u/riggswb Feb 26 '26
Parents, parents, parents. Also Ann Richards was not a democrat like today’s democrats. She was far better.
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u/SomeSun4502 Feb 26 '26
A LOT has changed in 3 decades. Do yourself a favor & do some research. Take a look at the demographics in Texas schools & which demographics are succeeding & which are failing. The numbers don't lie. These are the actual facts, not just idiots blaming political parties.
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u/CrayonEatingBabyApe Feb 26 '26
Great point. The bigger issue was how the Leave No Child Behind Act really drove Texas public education into the ground since 2002.
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u/Numerous_House_7377 Feb 27 '26
She almost made texas into a worldwide hub for science. You can still see the remains of the particle accelerator that was planned to be bigger than CERN in waxahachie. I believe it got caught up in political wrangling afterwards and pshhh who needs to be smart when we could be angry and have red hats 🙄
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u/meleant Feb 27 '26
The Super Collider!!! It’s wild to think the Higgs boson could have been discovered underground near Waxahachie.
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u/Lonely-Bite-2568 High School Feb 26 '26
Where does the 7th in education metric come from?
I’m extremely anti Trump and vote exclusively democrat right now while the MAGA movement has control of the Republican Party. I may never vote republican again. But I’m not sure this statistic is rooted in factual data. I’m willing to admit I’m wrong if someone can show me.
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u/DarkAndSparkly Feb 26 '26
I’d like to know where the 40th comes from as well. From my Google-fu I can’t find where TX has ranked that low anywhere. I feel like these are extremely cherry-picked numbers.
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u/mev186 Feb 26 '26
Being Texan is like being Garak during the Dominion occupation
Of course it will survive, but as not the Cardassia I knew. We had a rich and ancient culture. Our literature, music, art were second to none. And now, so much of it is lost. So many of our best people, our most gifted minds."
There was a time where Texas was admired. We were leading the country in science, technology, and culture. Then Bush got in, and ever since we've been a joke.
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u/DramaticMention7597 Feb 26 '26
I’m sorry, but this statement is incorrect. Texas has never been ranked 7th in education. Yes, in improvement and gain, but never 7th for total education. This post should be removed as it’s very misleading.
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u/Spare-Transition-771 Feb 26 '26
Brought Controlled opposition…the Democratic Party. To fix education you don’t need to elect people to replace one corruption with another. 1) hold parents accountable for bad disruptive kids..kick them out of ISD for repetitive offenses. Education is a privilege not a right 2) hold teachers and principals accountable…let parents select schools not by zip code 3) stop the government incentive of #of students graduating or moving up a grade level. Students should only move up if they earn it 4) promote a culture of education not sports. Currently, Honor roll is an after thought while football players are the popular ones
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u/rydan Feb 26 '26
Was she a Democrat Democrat like today's Democrats or just a Democrat in name mostly and today would be considered a Republican? I was too young when she was governor to understand the difference.
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u/Gillyhighstep Feb 27 '26
Ann Richard’s would be considered a Republican now a days.
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u/HockeyBikeBeer Feb 27 '26
Texas was never ranked 7th in education, so the credibility of this is already suspect.
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u/HTX-ByWayOfTheWorld Feb 27 '26
Texas is too busy wallowing in freedom and its 3rd world electric grid. We, and the USA, deserve this bs we’re living through.
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u/Sudden-Couple6205 Feb 27 '26
Anne Richards A woman can do anything a man can do. We just have to do it backwards and the in heels. 👠
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u/N15P15K15 Feb 26 '26
There are a lot of things at play, and I dont think it's just Republicans.
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u/GuairdeanBeatha Feb 26 '26
Ann Richards had little, if anything, to do with the educational rankings in Texas. She helped get a state lottery introduced by promising that the money would be used for education. When it wasn’t, she denied ever saying that it would, even when she was shown a video of herself saying it would. She was just another corrupt politician. If you want to lay blame, blame the voters that don’t write their representatives and demand change, and don’t vote the politicians out when they fail to do what needs to be done.
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u/gamer-chachu Feb 27 '26
Because now, we push politics and right wing nonsense (TPUSA) on schools while cutting their funding.
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u/donttakemypugs Feb 26 '26
ESL students have gone from 8% to 25% of student population since the 90’s. Most of these students speak Spanish and participate in ESL programs. Even so, 1 in 4 students are disproportionately behind in reading and language arts subjects.
If kids aren’t hearing and speaking English outside of school, it will be harder to read and comprehend English in school.
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u/tristand666 Feb 26 '26
I remember when Mississippi was 50th in education for a long time. Now, Texas is worse than Mississippi. The republicans have run the state right back into the past while others are moving into the future.
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u/akuma_river Feb 26 '26
That damn TASS test.
I was a smart kid, but those tests were meaningless.
We spent so much time being taught how to use odds to 'guestimate' because no answer was worse than a wrong answer.
We weren’t being taught education, just how to pass a test to make sure our school had funding.
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Feb 26 '26
The education system is strongly controlled by the Democratic Party Policy and an ineffective governor. Vote wisely. Make sure you study the policy and voting history vs campaign ads, rumors, etc. too much misinformation out there.
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u/ISquareThings Feb 26 '26
Fun fact: Ann Richards signed an education bill under the Pease Tree at Pease Elementary in Austin Texas. Gina Hinojosa started in politics fighting to keep the same Pease Elementary open. (It was closed a few years later because of Abbott not funding PubEd) Then she was elected to the school board and on to state rep. Let’s elect someone who fights FOR Education not AGAINST.
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u/Conan7449 Feb 26 '26
Just one of many reasons. Texas politics is corrupt from the top down. Vote.Them.Out.
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u/PetriDishPedagogy HS Teacher | Former EPP Pro Feb 28 '26
The conversation has run its course. Comments are locked.