Texas: Education Is Not Optional

By Cliff Potts, CSO
Editor-in-Chief, WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 3, 2026

Texas likes to talk about self-reliance. About grit. About pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. That story falls apart the moment you look seriously at education in this state. You cannot build self-reliance on a system that routinely abandons children before they ever get a fair shot. Education is not a cultural preference. It is not a political bargaining chip. It is infrastructure. And in Texas, that infrastructure has been allowed to rot.

This is not a moral failing of students. It is a policy failure of adults.

The Dropout Problem We Keep Pretending Isn’t Ours

Texas has one of the largest public school systems in the country, and with that scale comes responsibility. Yet year after year, dropout rates in major cities and rural districts remain stubbornly high. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, and countless smaller districts lose thousands of students before graduation. In some places, one out of every four students disappears from the system before earning a diploma.

When a student drops out, politicians love to talk about personal responsibility. What they avoid talking about is class size, underpaid teachers, outdated materials, crumbling facilities, and the quiet reality that many students are expected to navigate school while carrying adult burdens at home. Responsibility cuts both ways. If the system fails repeatedly, the system bears blame.

A state that shrugs at dropout rates is a state writing off its future workforce in advance.

Schools Reflect Priorities, Not Values

Texas lawmakers often claim to value education, but budgets tell a different story. Funding formulas remain inequitable. Wealthy districts thrive while poorer districts scrape by. Rural schools struggle to recruit and retain teachers. Urban schools struggle with overcrowding and burnout. None of this is mysterious. It is the predictable outcome of underinvestment.

Teachers in Texas are asked to perform miracles with limited support. They manage classrooms that would overwhelm seasoned professionals in other fields. They do it while earning salaries that barely compete with private-sector alternatives. When teachers leave, students lose stability. When students lose stability, learning suffers.

This is not ideology. It is cause and effect.

Bilingual Education Is Not a Threat

Texas sits at the crossroads of cultures, languages, and economies. Treating bilingual education as controversial is one of the most self-defeating habits this state has developed. Spanish is not foreign here. It is foundational. Preparing students to communicate fluently in both English and Spanish is not about politics. It is about competence.

Bilingual students consistently show cognitive advantages, stronger problem-solving skills, and greater adaptability in the workforce. In a global economy, monolingualism is a disadvantage. Texas should be producing graduates who can move comfortably across borders, industries, and cultures.

Mandatory bilingual education is not an imposition. It is preparation.

Education and the Skills Gap

Texas employers regularly complain about a lack of skilled workers. At the same time, Texas schools continue to emphasize narrow testing metrics over practical preparation. This disconnect hurts everyone. Students graduate without clear pathways. Employers struggle to fill positions. Communities stagnate.

Education should not be limited to college preparation alone. Trades, technical skills, healthcare support, infrastructure maintenance, and digital literacy all deserve equal respect and investment. Apprenticeships, vocational programs, and partnerships with local industries should be standard, not experimental.

A student who graduates with usable skills is not “less educated” than one who graduates with abstract credentials. Education succeeds when it prepares people for real lives.

The Cost of Ignoring Reality

When education fails, the consequences ripple outward. Healthcare costs rise. Incarceration rates increase. Economic mobility stalls. These outcomes are expensive, both financially and socially. Preventing them through education is far cheaper than managing them later through emergency systems.

Texas often frames education spending as a burden. In truth, it is one of the highest-return investments a state can make. Every dollar spent on effective education saves multiple dollars down the line in healthcare, corrections, and social services.

Refusing to invest is not fiscally conservative. It is fiscally reckless.

Technology Without Thinking Is a Trap

Texas has embraced technology unevenly in education. Some districts race ahead with digital tools. Others lack basic connectivity. Technology can enhance learning, but it cannot replace good teaching, stable environments, and human attention.

The rush to digitize without addressing inequity widens gaps instead of closing them. Students without reliable internet, quiet study spaces, or adult support fall further behind. Technology should serve education, not substitute for it.

Real reform requires planning, not gadgets.

Accountability That Makes Sense

Standardized testing has become a stand-in for accountability in Texas. It measures some things poorly and ignores many others entirely. Teaching to the test narrows learning and drains joy from education. Students become data points. Teachers become compliance officers.

Accountability should focus on outcomes that matter: literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, graduation rates, and post-school success. That requires nuanced evaluation, not one-size-fits-all metrics.

If we care about results, we must measure what actually counts.

Education and Democracy

A functioning democracy depends on an educated public. People who cannot access information, evaluate arguments, or understand systems are easily manipulated. Education is not just about jobs. It is about citizenship.

Texas cannot claim to value freedom while undermining the education that makes informed freedom possible. Knowledge is not dangerous. Ignorance is.

What a Serious Texas Would Do

A serious Texas would fund schools equitably. It would pay teachers competitively. It would treat bilingual education as standard preparation. It would expand vocational and technical pathways. It would invest early, support consistently, and measure intelligently.

Most of all, it would stop pretending that failure is inevitable.

Why This Matters Now

Education shapes everything that follows. Work. Health. Justice. Stability. If Texas wants a future that functions, it must start where all futures start: with children and the systems meant to prepare them.

Education is not optional. It is the foundation on which every other policy rests. Ignoring that truth has cost Texas dearly. Continuing to ignore it will cost even more.

Texas can do better. But only if it decides that education is not something to argue about—it is something to build.

This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.

References (APA)
Texas Education Agency. (2024). Secondary school completion, dropout, and graduation data.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2024). Bilingual education outcomes and workforce readiness.
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. (2024). School finance and funding equity reports.
Economic Policy Institute. (2024). Teacher compensation and educational investment analysis.
RAND Corporation. (2024). Education policy, skills development, and long-term economic outcomes.