Twenty Years Is Enough: Why Texas Can Do Better for Its Kids
A twenty-year look at the Texas state rankings that matter most to children and public schools
Key Findings
- Texas ranks tied for 40th in the nation for school systems overall in 2026 (WalletHub).
- Texas ranks 39th in K-12 per-pupil spending, approximately $4,000 below the national average (Texas State Teachers Association, 2025).
- Texas has ranked dead last in the nation for children's health insurance coverage for 19 consecutive years from 2006 through 2024 (UnidosUS).
- Texas leads the nation in food-insecure people, including 1.67 million food-insecure children, or one in five Texas children (Feeding Texas, 2025).
- These rankings have remained at or near the bottom across multiple gubernatorial administrations and through booms and busts in state revenue. Better outcomes are possible. Texas has chosen otherwise.
I've been deep in the data of how our state funds and supports public education for a couple of years now. I've written about what private school vouchers will cost CFBISD. I've written about how our enrollment timing puts us at a structural disadvantage compared to neighboring districts. Both of those analyses focused on the local impact of state-level decisions.
This piece zooms out. It looks at where Texas stands today across four areas that directly affect children and public schools, and where Texas stood in 2016 and 2006. The picture that emerges is not flattering. It is also not new.
Texas has been at or near the bottom of the nation in the rankings that matter most to kids for two decades. Across multiple gubernatorial administrations. Across booms and busts in state revenue. Across population growth that has made us the second-most populous state in America. The trajectory has not improved. In some categories, it has gotten worse.
This is not an accident. It is a choice. And it is a choice the people who hold power in Austin keep making.
The good news is that choices can be reconsidered. Texas has the resources, the talent, and the political infrastructure to do better. What we have lacked is the will. This article makes the case that the will should change, and shows what twenty years of data tells us about why.
How Does Texas Compare on K-12 Education?
2025-2026: Texas ranks tied for 40th in the nation for school systems overall, according to WalletHub's 2026 analysis. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most recent data shows Texas ranking 38th in fourth-grade reading, 44th in eighth-grade reading, and 34th in eighth-grade math.
2016: Texas ranked in the bottom third on most national K-12 measures, with NAEP scores in the 30s and 40s for reading and math.
2006: Texas ranked 39th in per-pupil spending and was generally classified in the bottom-third tier for academic outcomes by national measures.
The pattern: Texas has remained in the bottom third for K-12 education for two decades. The state has not meaningfully improved its national position despite significant population growth and substantial increases in nominal education spending.
What Is Texas Spending Per Student Compared to Other States?
2025-2026: Texas ranks 39th nationally in K-12 education funding per pupil, according to EducationData.org's most recent analysis. Texas spends approximately $13,189 per student in average daily attendance, roughly $4,000 below the national average. Even after the Texas Legislature's 2025 increase, Texas remains projected to rank approximately 39th once other states' increases are factored in.
2016: Texas ranked 36th in per-pupil expenditures, $2,316 below the national average of $11,787, according to the National Education Association's 2016 rankings.
2006-2007: Texas ranked 39th in per-pupil spending, according to NEA data.
The pattern: Texas per-pupil spending has been chronically below the national average for the entire 20-year period. The state's relative ranking has fluctuated between 35th and 44th, but Texas has never broken into the top half. Adjusted for inflation, per-pupil spending in Texas was effectively flat from 2005 to 2019, with a modest increase in 2019 and another in 2025.
How Does Texas Rank for Children's Healthcare?
2025-2026: Texas ranks dead last in the nation for children's health insurance coverage. According to 2024 Census American Community Survey data, 13.6 percent of Texas children lack health insurance, more than double the national rate of 6.0 percent. The Commonwealth Fund's 2025 Scorecard on State Health System Performance ranks Texas 50th overall for healthcare system performance. WalletHub's 2024 analysis ranked Texas 51st (last, including Washington, D.C.) for the percentage of uninsured children and 51st for the percentage of children with unaffordable medical bills.
2016: Texas ranked at or near the bottom for children's uninsured rate, with conditions worse than they are today. UnidosUS analysis of 2006-2024 Census data confirms Texas held the worst position throughout this period.
2006: Texas ranked at the bottom of the nation for children's uninsured rate, the starting year of an unbroken streak.
The pattern: According to UnidosUS, Texas has ranked as America's worst state for children's health insurance coverage for 19 consecutive years, from 2006 through 2024. This is one of the most damning long-term rankings any state holds in any category. It is not a result of recent policy. It is the result of sustained policy choices, including the state's continued refusal to expand Medicaid, a decision that would cover an estimated 1.4 million low-income Texans.
Where Does Texas Rank on Childhood Hunger?
2025-2026: Texas leads the nation in total food insecurity, with 5.4 million people food insecure, or one in six households. Among Texas children, 22.2 percent face hunger, totaling approximately 1.67 million children, or one in five. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area ranks third nationally for total food insecurity, behind only Los Angeles and New York.
2016: Texas had one of the highest rates of children's food insecurity in the nation, with approximately 22 percent of Texas children, about 1.6 million, experiencing food insecurity.
2006: Texas ranked among the top five states for child food insecurity, with rates around 22 percent of Texas children.
The pattern: Texas has had one of the highest rates of children's food insecurity in the nation for the entire 20-year period. The number of food-insecure Texans has grown alongside population growth, and Texas surpassed California for the second consecutive year as the state with the most food-insecure people in 2025.
Why Has Texas Remained at the Bottom for Two Decades?
When you put all four rankings side by side, the story is striking:
K-12 education: Bottom third for two decades.
Public school funding: Below the national average for two decades.
Children's healthcare: Dead last for nineteen consecutive years.
Children's hunger: Among the worst in the nation for two decades.
Different rankings, different methodologies, different sources. The same conclusion. Texas has not improved its position on any of the metrics that matter most to children's lives during a period of enormous economic and demographic growth in this state.
This is not the story of a state that briefly slipped. It is the story of a state that has held these positions through three different governors, four different lieutenant governors, and a generation of legislative sessions. It has been true under both economic booms and budget shortfalls. It has been true while the state population has grown by roughly seven million people. It has been true while the state's economy became the eighth-largest in the world.
The constant has not been Texas's circumstances. The constant has been the political choices Texas leaders have made about what to fund, what to ignore, and which children deserve to thrive.
The Tenure That Defines the Most Recent Decade
Greg Abbott was sworn in as Governor of Texas on January 20, 2015. Dan Patrick was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor on the same day, January 20, 2015. They have controlled the executive branch and the Texas Senate calendar together for more than eleven years.
During that tenure:
Texas has remained in the bottom third for K-12 education.
Texas has remained below the national average for per-pupil spending, with the basic allotment frozen at $6,160 from 2019 through 2024 before a $55 increase to $6,215 in 2025.
Texas has remained dead last for children's health insurance coverage every single year of their tenure.
Texas has remained at or near the top of the nation for childhood food insecurity, with the absolute number of food-insecure Texans growing.
These leaders have had eleven years and supermajority political control in the Texas Senate to address any of these rankings. They have had access to a Rainy Day Fund that has grown to record levels. They have had legislative sessions in which education funding was a stated priority. They have had the political authority to expand Medicaid, raise the basic allotment to keep pace with inflation, and prioritize the programs that move children out of food insecurity.
They have chosen instead to pass the largest day-one school voucher program in the nation, a program projected to cost up to $7.9 billion by 2030-31, that will primarily fund tuition for families who already opted out of public education.
What This Has to Do With CFBISD
When CFBISD closed four schools in March 2025, the headlines focused on the local board's decision. When the audited deficit came in at $14.6 million for fiscal year 2024-25, the public conversation focused on district management1. When residents asked why class sizes are growing and teachers are leaving, the conversation focused on local administration.
I want to be clear about something. Local accountability matters. School board governance matters. I ran for the CFBISD Board of Trustees because I believe the local board has work to do that it has not been doing.
But the local board did not freeze the basic allotment for six years. The local board did not refuse to expand Medicaid. The local board did not pass a voucher program that pulls funding out of public schools. The local board did not allow Texas to remain dead last in children's health insurance for 19 consecutive years.
A local board can manage what it has well or badly. It cannot conjure funding out of thin air when the state has decided not to provide it. It cannot insure children whose families have been priced out of every available option. It cannot feed students whose families are struggling because Texas has the highest concentration of food-insecure people in the country.
The structural problem is in Austin. The local consequences are in our classrooms.
What Comes Next: How Texas Can Do Better
Better schools take time. Better outcomes take work. Better communities take courage from all of us.
I wrote earlier this year that the biggest lever for changing any of this is the November 2026 state elections1. That has not changed. The Texas Legislature built the funding system that produced these rankings. The governor's mansion and the legislature write the financial rules, control the Texas Education Agency, and set the per-student allotment. Local school board races matter. State-level races are where the money decisions get made.
If you live in Texas and you care about kids, three actions follow from the data above.
First, know who represents you in Austin. Every Texan can look up their state senator and state representative at fyi.capitol.texas.gov by entering their home address. The people who voted on Senate Bill 2, who froze the basic allotment, who refused to expand Medicaid, are public officials whose votes are public. Their offices take constituent calls.
Second, support the organizations doing the long-term work. Friends of Texas Public Schools tracks data and advocates for public education across the state. Raise Your Hand Texas, founded by Charles Butt of H-E-B, runs candidate forums and policy workshops. The Texas Center for Voucher Transparency provides independent analysis of voucher data the state has chosen not to publish. UnidosUS publishes the only consistent year-over-year analysis of children's health coverage in Texas.
Third, remember in November. The Texas state elections in November 2026 are not abstract. They are the mechanism through which Texas decides whether to continue these rankings or change them. Every voter who shows up makes that decision.
Texas can do better. We have the resources. We have the people. We have the talent. What we have not had is the political will from the state leaders who have held power for the past eleven years.
That can change. It changes when voters decide it should.
Twenty years at the bottom is enough.
Sources
Jimenez, Dave. "What Vouchers Will Cost CFBISD." dave4cfb.com, April 2026.
Jimenez, Dave. "Why CFBISD's Open Enrollment Timing Is Losing Us Students." dave4cfb.com, April 2026.
WalletHub, "States With the Best & Worst School Systems in 2026," July 21, 2025. Texas ranked T-40 in school systems overall.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, "Grading Texas Education Requires a Closer Look Behind the Numbers," August 28, 2025. NAEP rankings for Texas: 38th in fourth-grade reading, 44th in eighth-grade reading, 34th in eighth-grade math.
PolitiFact, "State Sen. Wendy Davis says Texas ranks 44th in education spending per student," January 31, 2011. Citing National Education Association data: Texas ranked 39th in per-pupil spending in 2006-07, spending an average of $9,825 per pupil.
EducationData.org, "U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics [2026]: per Pupil + Total," updated February 17, 2026. Texas ranks 39th in K-12 education funding per pupil.
Texas State Teachers Association, "Even with an extra $8.5 billion for public schools, Texas still trails the national average in per-student funding by $4,000," June 11, 2025.
Ballotpedia, "Fact check: Public school funding in Texas," 2017. Citing NEA Rankings of the States 2016: Texas ranked 36th in per-pupil expenditures at $9,471 per pupil, $2,316 below the 2016 national average of $11,787.
Texans Care for Children, "Texas Has the Worst Uninsured Rate in the US Once Again — and Policymakers Hold the Key to Fix It," September 25, 2025. Citing 2024 Census American Community Survey: 13.6 percent of Texas children and 21.6 percent of Texas adults lacked health insurance in 2024.
The Commonwealth Fund, "2025 Scorecard on State Health System Performance," June 2025. Texas ranked 50th overall.
Spectrum News / WalletHub, "Texas ranks low for children's health care in U.S.," April 10, 2024. WalletHub ranked Texas 51st (last) for percentage of uninsured children and 51st for percentage of children with unaffordable medical bills.
UnidosUS, "Almost 1 Million Texan Children Uninsured: Texas Is America's Worst State at Protecting Children's Health Coverage," December 2024. Texas has ranked as America's worst state for children's health insurance for 19 consecutive years from 2006 to 2024. Updated UnidosUS report (2026) confirms ranking continues.
Feeding Texas, "Hunger in Texas," 2025. Texas food insecurity rate of 17.6 percent, with 5.4 million people facing hunger; child food insecurity rate of 22.2 percent, with 1,673,600 children.
North Texas Food Bank and Tarrant Area Food Bank / Feeding America, "Texas Leads the Nation in Hunger; DFW Ranks Third Among U.S. Metro Areas," May 14, 2025.
Every Texan, "Kids Count," analysis of USDA Economic Research Service data. Texas has had one of the highest rates of child food insecurity in the nation throughout the period 2006-2024.
Texas Legislative Reference Library, "Governor Greg Abbott." Sworn in January 20, 2015. National Governors Association confirms three terms: January 20, 2015 - January 7, 2019; January 8, 2019 - January 17, 2023; January 17, 2023 - present.
FOX 7 Austin, "Inauguration Day in Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott sworn in for third term," January 18, 2023. Patrick was first elected lieutenant governor in 2015 and has served three terms.
Texas Education Agency, basic allotment data. Allotment was $6,160 from 2019 through 2024, increased to $6,215 in 2025 under House Bill 2 of the 89th Texas Legislature.
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) projections.
Raise Your Hand Texas. Texas Legislative Budget Board, fiscal note projection for Senate Bill 2 (89th Texas Legislature). Voucher program cost projected up to $7.9 billion by 2030-31.
Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, an Our Schools Our Democracy initiative providing independent analysis of Texas Comptroller voucher data.
Dave Jimenez writes about public education accountability, school funding, and the structural choices that shape outcomes for children in Texas. He lives in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District with his wife Dr. Stephanie Jimenez, who served the district for 30 years as a teacher, administrator, and principal. Dr. Jimenez is currently the Assistant Superintendent in Bonham ISD. The conversation will continue here at dave4cfb.com.
