This text was initially revealed by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative information outlet and journal. Join their weekly publication, or observe them on Fb, X, and Bluesky.
At the least 135 public colleges have closed or have been authorized to shut all throughout Texas since late 2023, as districts face funds crises amid state funding shortfalls, in keeping with information gathered by the general public college advocacy group Our Colleges Our Democracy.
Carrie Griffith, government director of the Austin-based nonprofit, stated each area of the state has been impacted by college closures. “It’s not particular to city or rural areas. … It’s not confined to any type of racial or ethnic breakdown.” Griffith stated. “That’s the reason we are saying it’s not a neighborhood failure; it’s a statewide development.”
The variety of Texas public colleges dealing with closure greater than doubled from 2024 to 2025, rising from 22 to 50, the nonprofit’s information exhibits. And within the first six months of 2026, Texas college districts have voted to shut much more colleges—not less than 55—than final yr.
Utilizing college district board minutes and information experiences, Our Colleges Our Democracy discovered that closures spanned the state. The North Texas area had the very best variety of colleges—round 45—which have been or shall be closed. Some closures are occurring in districts which have been taken over by the state, together with in Fort Price, Houston, and Beaumont, in keeping with an inventory the nonprofit continues to replace. The Fort Price Impartial Faculty District (ISD), which is now working underneath the state’s appointed board of managers, not too long ago expanded its listing of pending closures to incorporate 19 campuses by June 2029.
Faculty funding is tied to pupil attendance, which has fallen in lots of public college districts across the state. Griffith believes that, other than the problem of decrease beginning charges, constitution colleges and the brand new personal college voucher program are additionally siphoning college students away from public colleges.
The Houston space has 32 campuses and the San Antonio space has 23 campuses within the listing compiled by the nonprofit.
Bobby Blount, the president of the Bexar County Faculty Board Coalition and a Northside ISD board member for 27 years, stated college districts’ rising funds deficits, partly linked to a scarcity of state funding, are a significant factor resulting in elevated campus closures.
Earlier than a modest enhance authorized within the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers final elevated investments to public colleges in 2019. For some time, federal cash tied to COVID-19 aid saved college districts afloat. However these funds dried up at the same time as inflation and declining enrollment in public colleges elevated college deficits. Then, in 2023, Abbott obstructed a rise for college funding when lawmakers initially rejected college vouchers. Extra funding got here solely after vouchers had been authorized in 2025.
Griffith stated she thinks the voucher program will speed up the variety of neighborhood college closures, which have already been affected by constitution college expansions.
“Simply on this most up-to-date biennium, the state paid $10 billion to constitution colleges, and that’s at a direct expense to the cash going to public college districts … and now districts are additionally bracing themselves for the anticipated impression of dropping college students to personal colleges [through vouchers],” Griffith stated.
Even after lawmakers in 2025 handed what they known as a “historic” $8.5 billion college funding bundle, it wasn’t sufficient to make up for prior years of shortfalls.
The Legislature raised the essential allotment, or the first per-pupil funding, by $55, however it will have needed to enhance it by greater than $1,300 simply to maintain up with inflation since 2019, in keeping with Increase Your Hand Texas, a public coverage group. Texas ranks within the backside 10 states for common public training spending, in keeping with information from the Nationwide Training Affiliation.
As an alternative of going to the essential allotment, which might have allowed college districts to make use of the elevated funding as they wanted, many of the new funding was earmarked for particular objects. Kelly Rasti, the affiliate government director of the Texas Affiliation of Faculty Boards, stated the funding didn’t deal with the wants of many college districts due to the restrictions.
“Rising the essential allotment permits for college districts to direct the elevated funding to what their native wants are,” Rasti stated. She added the invoice additionally created new spending necessities for districts.
“How is it doable that this outstanding sum of money was invested into public colleges and so they’re nonetheless closing and so they’re nonetheless adopting deficit budgets? It’s as a result of the vast majority of that cash was not directed in a manner that colleges can plug their present holes.”
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