The state of Texas is involved in a financial trial with its school districts and is expected to last through January. The state demographer, Steve Murdock, has given a testimony for the trial stating that all Texas children need to receive adequate education in order to succeed for the future, including the high poverty areas that have large Hispanic communities. Unlike some states that have had recent issues with language and not providing Spanish language translation for the students, the school districts in Texas are saying that Hispanic children are quickly becoming the majority in schools and they need to be given a sufficient education if they’re going to be the future leaders of the state.
Texas’s New Accountability Standards are Making School Districts Struggle
By 2050, Murdock says that Texas will be home to 31 million Hispanics, and only 12 Million non-Hispanic whites. The evidence of this is seen in the growing number of Hispanic students all across Texas. Humble ISD in Northeast Houston is especially struggling under the new accountability standards and budget cuts. The school district is a high poverty area and isn’t generating the revenue that the school needs to succeed. The budget cuts took away over 24 million dollars from the district last year, completely nullifying the raise in school operation taxes. The students are not getting the education they deserve, and it’s not through inadequate Spanish translation materials for the classrooms. It’s through a general lack of funding for high poverty areas. The funding is not there because accountability standards are not being met, but students are also not receiving a quality education that would enable them to meet the standards, so the situation is not getting resolved.