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Public schools in Texas

5,545,640 pupils attended 9,192 public schools in Texas in 2024–25, in 1,233 school districts. Its districts spent $12,274 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Texas, 2024–25

5.5 million
Pupils
5,545,640
11.3% of the nation's public school pupils.
9,192
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
14.9
Pupils per teacher
Over the 8,924 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
1,056
Charter schools
8.8% of pupils.
$12,274
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Texas over time

Texas's public schools enrolled 5,269,606 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–⁠25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds

Public school membership in Texas each fall, 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.

Membership is the October 1 count of pupils on a school’s rolls, as the state reported it to NCES.

Every year here reports its pre-kindergarten pupils.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public school membership by state, 2014–15 onwards

The figures behind this chart
Texas's public schools enrolled 5,269,606 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds. Public school membership in Texas each fall, 2014–15 to 2024–25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.
School yearAll gradesExcluding pre-kindergartenPre-kindergarten
2014–⁠155,233,7654,991,939241,826
2015–⁠165,301,4775,057,981243,496
2016–⁠175,360,8495,112,733248,116
2017–⁠185,401,3415,145,119256,222
2018–⁠195,433,4715,169,011264,460
2019–⁠205,495,3985,220,228275,170
2020–⁠215,372,8065,154,686218,120
2021–⁠225,428,6135,183,478245,135
2022–⁠235,519,5995,250,158269,441
2023–⁠245,532,5185,257,035275,483
2024–⁠255,545,6405,269,606276,034

Texas's school districts spent $12,274 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $7,260 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Texas, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

Not adjusted for inflation: a dollar in 2005 bought more than a dollar in 2023, and this chart does not say how much more.

Each year is the release NCES has published for it: provisional for most, final for fiscal years 2019 to 2022. A final release revises the provisional one by well under 1% nationally.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — every fiscal year in the current format

The figures behind this chart
Texas's school districts spent $12,274 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $7,260 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Texas, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Fiscal yearPer pupilPupilsRelease
FY2005$7,2604,400,037Provisional
FY2006$7,5564,519,988Provisional
FY2007$7,8094,594,682Provisional
FY2008$8,3124,670,960Provisional
FY2009$8,5364,748,832Provisional
FY2010$8,7384,850,210Provisional
FY2011$8,6704,934,366Provisional
FY2012$8,2585,000,470Provisional
FY2013$8,2895,076,915Provisional
FY2014$8,5725,153,702Provisional
FY2015$8,8175,233,765Provisional
FY2016$8,9755,301,477Provisional
FY2017$9,3345,360,849Provisional
FY2018$9,5605,401,341Provisional
FY2019$9,7825,433,471Final
FY2020$10,3025,495,398Final
FY2021$10,9315,372,806Final
FY2022$11,7655,428,609Final
FY2023$12,2745,519,599Provisional

Where Texas’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 1,239 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Texas's school districts 51.9% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Texas's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — newest fiscal year

The figures behind this chart
Local sources gave Texas's school districts 51.9% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Texas's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$14.4 billion16.9%
State$26.6 billion31.2%
Local$44.3 billion51.9%

The largest districts in Texas

By fall membership in 2024–25. Spending per pupil is the same district’s fiscal year 2023 figure from NCES’s finance file, where it reports one.

The 10 largest public school districts in Texas, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Houston ISD176,72727416.1$13,072
Dallas ISD139,80223914.9$14,470
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD117,9279415.4$10,693
Northside ISD100,20812814.2$10,632
Katy ISD96,1117913.9$11,284
Fort Bend ISD79,6638316.0$10,520
Idea Public Schools79,43012518.4$11,857
Conroe ISD72,9146715.3$10,349
Austin ISD72,27212314.0$12,950
Fort Worth ISD70,40513714.9$13,690

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Texas

40.6% of Texas's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Texas's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–⁠25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public schools, newest full school year

The figures behind this chart
40.6% of Texas's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Texas's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.
LocaleSchoolsShare of schoolsPupilsShare of pupils
City3,68140.0%2,252,24540.6%
Suburb2,27624.8%1,803,67832.5%
Town9099.9%496,9739.0%
Rural2,32625.3%992,74417.9%

Colleges in Texas that take federal student aid

385 colleges in Texas are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 102 public, 75 private nonprofit and 208 private for-profit. They enrolled 2,215,927 students over twelve months and awarded 148,337 bachelor’s degrees.

Texas elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

    Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

  • Most dangerous cities in TexasCrime and justice

    What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

  • Prison populationCrime and justice

    People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

  • Arrests by race, sex and ageCrime and justice

    Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

  • Hate crimeCrime and justice

    Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

  • Federal obligationsFederal spending

    What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.

  • Registered nonprofitsNonprofits

    How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.

  • Payments to doctorsHealth

    What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

  • Immigration courtsImmigration and the border

    The EOIR courts sitting in the state, what they completed and still have pending, and how far apart their asylum grant rates are. The courts, not the state’s residents: a detention court hears cases from far outside it.

  • Farm program paymentsFarm subsidies

    What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.

  • Paycheck Protection Program loansPPP loans

    The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.

  • The Texas Factbook entryAcross the Factbook

    Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration link above is EOIR’s courts, which sit in this state. CBP’s encounters are not by state and will not be: its sectors and field offices are areas of responsibility rather than a geography, and assigning them to states would be a claim the data does not make. Immigration and the border.

Sources

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024–25; “School District Finance Survey (F-33),” fiscal year 2023; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Data retrieved