Public Education In Texas

The origins of public education in Texas can be traced to the pre-Republic times when Texas was a part of Mexico. During this time, Texans wanted the Mexican government to establish a system of public education in Texas, but the government did not meet their requests. As a result, the writers of Texas’ Declaration of Independence listed the Mexican government’s refusal to set up a system of public education as one of the grievances against Mexico. Because of this, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas included a provision that called for a system of public education in Texas; however, no system was established during the years when Texas was an independent nation, as Texas passed a bill in 1854, after it joined the Union in 1845, that
This milestone created the TEA, which has supervised public education in Texas ever since. The creation of the TEA has allowed the state to exert more control over school districts by creating regulations for schools to follow. It also provided an additional source of funding for schools by allowing state monies to be used by them. This allowed schools to use the funds for textbooks, higher salaries for teachers, and continued training for teachers. These changes allowed for the improvement of the quality of education in Texas and the chances of better education for students in the
This problem can be seen in the students that live in the Rio Grande Valley, also known as “The Valley”. “[The Valley] is a low-income, majority-Latina/o, border, rural community” with significantly lower high-school graduation rates and college attendance rates than the rest of the state (Cabrera, López, and Sáenz 233). The lower percentages of students from this area can be attributed to barriers such as “financial difficulties, teachers limited in their abilities to teach college knowledge, and the inaccessibility of counselors” (Cabrera, López, and Sáenz 239). The reason why many students face financial difficulties when they are trying to go to college is that many of these are from low-income families. The limited ability of teachers in The Valley to teach college knowledge can be attributed to the fact that schools in the area emphasize standardized testing, as “high school courses were heavily focused on preparing students for the [TAKS] exams,” leaving teachers with little time to teach about knowledge and skills necessary for college (Cabrera, López, and Sáenz 240). As a result, students are not often equipped with skills that will help them in college. The inability of students to have access to counselors can be attributed to the feeling that many students have “that there were too few school counselors given