Education in Texas

Education in Texas consists of a large and structurally distinct public school system, a network of public and private universities, and a range of alternative pathways including charter, private, and home schooling.

Texas has over 1,000 public school districts, nearly all of which are independent from municipal and county government—governed by locally elected boards with the power to levy taxes and exercise eminent domain. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides oversight and supplemental funding, though its jurisdiction is largely limited to intervening in low-performing districts. State curriculum is governed by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), maintained by the State Board of Education. Public school students are assessed through the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR).

At the postsecondary level, Texas has 35 public universities, organized into six state systems, as well as a large number of private institutions. Sixteen Texas universities hold Carnegie Tier One research classification. The state's higher education landscape grew substantially in the mid-twentieth century, shaped by wartime investment, the 1949 Gilmer-Aikin reforms that restructured K-12 funding and governance, and federal research dollars flowing to Texas institutions during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

History

Education in Texas began in the late 1830s. In breaking away from Mexico 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."

Gilmer-Aikin Laws of 1949

After Beauford H. Jester, a Democrat, was re-elected to a second term as governor in 1948, he worked with A. M. Aikin Jr.