There are 13,500 school districts in the U.S. Those school districts are split up among the 50 state departments of education. Hawaii keeps it simple. The state is the school district. Each state names its education department to fit its state. Most of the states have ‘X Department of Education’, like Florida and Arkansas. Texas, the state I taught in, has to be different.
The department of education there is known as the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The TEA is responsible for teacher certification, state educational standards and standardized testing, among other responsibilities. It also oversees public school accountability and interventions such as state takeovers when a school system is failing. The TEA administers the Texas Education Freedom Accounts which is what pays for school choice.
One big responsibility is to decide what curriculum for primary education (Kindergarten through fifth grade) and secondary education, (grades six through twelve) will be used statewide. Texas is 261,232 square miles, the second largest state in land size. Alaska is first with 588,400 square miles. There are 1,202 school districts in the state, broken up into twenty regions. The district where I taught is Region Four. There are over seven million children in the state, with over five million going to a public school. The rest are too young, have already left school or are in a private school. Private schools do not have to follow the state mandated curriculum or give the state mandated standardized tests. Creating a curriculum that covers so many students and is useful is difficult.
Related: The Public School Mess
To add to everything, there are two separate curricula for primary and secondary education. Texas recently switched from Core Knowledge to Bluebonnet for primary education, citing a need for a Texas specific curriculum to line up with state educational standards, as well as for an open educational resource that is accessible and cost effective. Schools can print lessons straight from Bluebonnet’s website and don’t have to buy workbooks. The most interesting part of this switch is that school districts are not required to use the Bluebonnet curriculum. They may continue to use the current curriculum or other materials as long as the materials align with the state educational standards.
To increase participation with Bluebonnet, school districts will receive an extra $60 per child in school funding. For the largest school district in the state, Houston Independent School District, that adds up to a cool $3.3 million. HISD opted into the Bluebonnet curriculum in June 2026, probably because of the money. There is some controversy with Bluebonnet, which I understand because the system is described as being ‘Biblical-infused.’ I am one of those who believe that public schools should have an extremely limited approach to religion.
When I taught ninth grade world geography, there was a section on religions of the world. My students looked at Christianity, Judaism and Islam. We also looked at Buddhism and Hinduism. My students should know what other parts of the world are like and they learned a lot. One year, I had a young lady who was a Jehovah’s Witness, and she explained why they do not celebrate Christmas. To them, Jesus was not born in December. We all learned something. What my students learned in that section was as far as a school should go, in my opinion.
Since I have not been in a public school classroom for over twenty years, I can’t speak to the effectiveness of the new curriculum. Also, it hasn’t been in use for very long, and only time will tell its effectiveness. Offering a monetary incentive does make me wonder. From the research I did, there are plenty of parents in HISD looking to opt their children (or child) out of the new curriculum. I don’t know how successful they will be. H.I.S.D. is very big and $3.3 million is a lot of money, but I applaud the parents for trying.
Perhaps the most important function of the TEA is deciding where the funding goes. As of 2023 (the most recent information), federal funding accounts for 13.7% of public school funds, or one in seven dollars. The remaining amount comes from state and local sources. For the 2023-2024 school year, Texas schools received 38.6% of their budgets from the state. The rest, 47.7% comes from property taxes. Texas has no income tax but has very high property taxes, some of the highest in the U.S. The property tax rate is 1.31%, well above the national average of 0.89%. The property taxes are used to pay for the schools, roads, police, and fire departments.
Because property taxes account for almost half the budget of public schools, the more expensive the property, the higher the taxes. That’s fine if you happen to live in a wealthy area but not everyone does. For those schools that do not benefit from expensive properties, they do not receive as much funding from property taxes as other wealthier districts. How can the state make sure that each school district has about the same amount of funds?
Related: Yes, the Public Education System is Broken
Texas went with a program called recapture, nicknamed the Robin Hood plan. The property-wealthy districts would have funds taken (recaptured) above a certain amount and given to property-poor districts. This idea was passed into law in 1993 and has been subject to numerous lawsuits over the years, as the poor districts said they still weren’t receiving enough and the wealthy districts said too much was being taken. As of 2016, no new lawsuits have challenged the system.
The TEA is different from local school boards. Their decisions affect the entire state whereas local school board decisions affect only the district the board is tied to. If you want to see how local government is run, check out your local school board. Run for a position on it. You will be amazed at what you learn.
That’s all for this week’s Class Is In Session! Please let me know if there is an education topic you would like me to address.