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.
Higher Education
A Double “Return” on Education
From across the political spectrum, voters rural and urban and suburban, everyone I talk to has a theory about what has gone so wrong with American education. From cellphones to laptops, the culture wars and the pandemic, teacher pay and teacher burnout, weak discipline and bad curriculum to collapsing standards, there are no shortage of...
October 2, 2026