There were 68 Black students enrolled in Hale County schools in the 2024-25 school year, 10.5% less than the previous year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Data showed that Hale County welcomed 3,161 students during the 2024-25 school year. Among them, Black students comprised 2.2% of the student body to be the third most represented ethnicity in the county.
Among the 12 schools in Hale County, Plainview High School recorded the highest enrollment of Black students, with a total of 43.
A recent study by WalletHub classified Texas as one of the least-educated states in the U.S., ranking it 41st out of 50 in educational quality and student outcomes.
Underfunding is a frequently cited challenge facing Texas’ school districts. According to a 2024 report from the Texas Education Agency, per-pupil funding has not increased since 2019, despite inflation rates rising by more than 20% since then.
“As a result, many districts in our very own Central Texas region are being forced to cut back on essential programs, services, consider school closures, and adopt deficit budgets just to provide students with the education that they deserve,” Hutto ISD Trustee James Matlock stated in an interview.
| School name | % Black students | Total enrollment |
|---|---|---|
| Plainview High School | 3% | 1,418 |
| Abernathy Elementary School | 1.3% | 400 |
| Petersburg School | 0.8% | 243 |
| Abernathy High School | 1.7% | 237 |
| Akin Elementary School | 0.4% | 226 |
| Hale Center High School | 2.3% | 174 |
| Abernathy Middle School | 3.5% | 171 |
| Carr Middle School | 0.6% | 161 |
| Cotton Center School | 1% | 100 |
| Hale County JJAEP | 5.6% | 18 |
| Lockney DAEP | 0% | 7 |
| DAEP | 0% | 6 |
Information in this article was obtained from the Texas Education Agency. The source data can be found here.
