Texas Sucks Across The Board In Education

Texas schools are failing-except for one digital bright spot.

Texas is not doing well when it comes to education, with one small exception.

Ranking 32nd out of 51 doesn't sound like rock bottom, but it’s bad. You certainly wouldn’t want to be in 32nd place if tigers were catching people from slowest to fastest.

What’s more amazing—or frustrating—is how lax Texas continues to be when it comes to improving public schools. Now, with the voucher system pulling even more funding away from the public school system, things are likely to get worse before they get better.

The Lone Bright Spot In Texas Education: Digital Learning

A recent WalletHub survey put Texas in some pretty terrible company. In fact, the state might have ranked even lower if not for one bright spot: Texas is ranked #1 in the nation for having a Digital Learning Program.

Read More: Texas Ranks Eighth In Worst Quality Of Life Survey

So, what’s going wrong? Like most WalletHub surveys, this one is based on multiple metrics pulled from a wide range of data. The two main categories were Quality and Safety.

Under "Quality," Texas placed 42nd in reading scores. That’s deeply troubling. In the "Safety" category, the state ranked 6th for instances of bullying—meaning bullying is more common here than in most of the country.

There’s probably no need to dig any deeper—this survey paints a clear picture: Texas schools need to raise the bar, both in terms of academic excellence and the overall experience of being a student.

It must be hard for kids to try to learn while also feeling unsafe at school. At some point, you’d hope Texas lawmakers would stop with the ticky-tack interference in personal lifestyles and start focusing on helping people become smarter—and safer.