Texas schools get better results than California's:
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Peter Schaeffer August 16, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Lots of folks seem to think that Texas has an inferior school system. That does not appear to be the case. Sure on average the schools don’t measure up to Fairfax country. However, save for elite liberals that isn’t a relevant comparison. A simple comparison of Texas vs California vs the U.S. shows that Texas’s schools are doing quite well and at a very low cost. .
The Gold Standard of educational testing is the NAEP. The NAEP data for each state are readily available online. As best I can tell, Texas student outperform California students across the board and by significant margins. Texas students also appear to substantially outperform the U.S. average. Of course, Texas spends much less per student. The NAEP tests many subjects. However, I think math, reading, and science should suffice to make this point.
Math – Grade 8 – 2009 ( http://nationsreportcard.gov/math_2009/gr8_state.asp?subtab_id=Tab_1&tab_id=tab1#tabsContainer)
All Students White Black Hispanic Asian
CA 270 289 250 256 294
TX 287 301 272 277 313
US 282 292 260 266 300
Reading – Grade 8 – 2009 ( http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/state_g8.asp)
All Students White Black Hispanic Asian
CA 253 269 243 241 266
TX 260 273 249 251 280
US 262 271 245 248 273
Science – Grade 8 – 2009 ( http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2009/g8_state.asp?subtab_id=Tab_4&tab_id=tab1#tabsContainer)
All Students White Black Hispanic Asian
CA 137 157 122 122 154
TX 150 167 133 141 170
US 149 161 125 131 159
The NAEP data covers other subjects (as mentioned above) and other grades. However, the results shown here are consistent with the rest of the data. As you can see, TX students always (no exceptions) outperform CA students and the differences are large in some cases. TX students almost always perform the US average (one exception) and the differences are large in some cases.
[ Interesting. White students in TX score higher than white students in CA. Black students in TX score higher than black students in CA. Hispanic students in TX score higher than hispanic students in CA. Asian students in TX score higher than Asian students in CA. The demographics in the two states are similar - similar percentages of ethnic and racial groups. Obviously the TX school system is just better than CA across the board. ]
What about spending? The Census data ( http://www2.census.gov/govs/school/09f33pub.pdf – Table  shows that California spends more per-student than Texas. In 2008-2009, California spent $9,657 per pupil. Texas spent $8,540 per pupil. The national average was $10,499. Note that these are current spending numbers. Total spending (including capital outlays – Table 11) is greater for CA, TX, and the US. A useful point in this context is that Utah which spends the least ($6,356) outperforms New York which spends the most ($18,126).
Of course, Hispanic students are lagging in Texas compared to whites and Asians. However, Hispanic students lag whites and Asians in virtual every jurisdiction. The more germane point is the Hispanics in Texas are easily outperforming Hispanics in California and the US.
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