The Texas Constitution establishes public education through Article VII, Section 1, requires “an efficient system of public free schools.” [emphasis added].
In the 2014-15 school year, Texas taxpayers spent a total of $60.98 billion on public education, according to the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) 2014-15 Financial Actual Report. In the same school year, there were 4,778,559 students attending Texas public schools. As a result, Texans spent $12,761 per student. (For context, the average tuition for accredited private schools in Texas was only $7,848.) Therefore, Texans spend about $255,000 for a classroom of 20 students. At the same time, according to TEA’s 2014-15 Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR), the average annual salary for teachers was $50,715. Resources are not currently allocated in the most efficient manner to help Texas students.