West Texas News

Dillman Elementary School had the highest enrollment among Bailey County schools, welcoming 403 students during the 2022-23 academic year, according to the Texas Education Agency report.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2022-23 school year, 52.9% of them were boys, and 47.1% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were Hispanic, representing 87.8% of the Dillman Elementary School total enrollment.

Among the four schools in Bailey County, Muleshoe High School ranked second in enrollment numbers with 359 students, while Watson Junior High School welcomed 295 students and ranked third in the 2022-23 school year.

Dillman Elementary School is a part of Muleshoe ISD, which roughly covers schools within Bailey County with its main office in Muleshoe.

In the previous school year, Dillman Elementary School also had the highest number of students among Bailey County schools.

Texas is found to be one of the least educated states in the U.S. A study from WalletHub ranked Texas 41st out of 50 states in terms of the quality of the educational system and how successful students were.

More than 5.4 million students are enrolled in public schools across Texas. Nearly one million of them live in rural areas where options for local public schools are few and far between.

Education in Texas is often a hot button issue, especially as test scores lag behind other states.

“The problems commonly cited are flaws in the school financing system, relatively low teacher salary, poor test performance by students, dropouts from traditional schools in favor of charter schools, gun violence, and mental health issues,” claimed the Texas Almanac.

School Name	City	Total School Enrollment
Dillman Elementary School	Muleshoe	403
Muleshoe High School	Muleshoe	359
Watson Junior High School	Muleshoe	295
Mary Deshazo Elementary School	Muleshoe	290