This study calculates the financial impact on the state when Texans leave high school but fail to learn basic reading, writing, and math. Many of these students simply drop out, but an increasing number of them are students who graduate but still lack basic skills. The financial impact on the state manifests itself in a variety of ways – lower earning potential and poor productivity of workers, increased spending on social programs, direct costs of remediation by institutes of higher education and employers, and personal losses that may affect individuals for a lifetime and the state for generations.
K-12 Education
Noisy Illiteracy
Kids can’t read. I’m not kidding, the latest viral story from The New York Times proves this. The possible cause of the national literacy decline: Is it No Child Left Behind? How about increased classroom screen time? Maybe pandemic-era school closures? Ultimately, the article declined to say that there is a “single reason for the...
May 19, 2026