Abilene Times

Taylor County schools enrolled 13,883 students who identified as economically disadvantaged in the state during the 2022-23 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Of the 23,949 students enrolled in Taylor County schools, 58% were considered economically disadvantaged. This is an 11.3% increase over the previous school year.

Taylor County enrolled the 37th highest number of students identified as economically disadvantaged among Texas counties.

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.

School	Number of Economically Disadvantaged Students	Total Number of Students
Abilene High School	1,346	1,966
Cooper High School	1,107	1,716
Long Early Learning Center	698	809
Mann Middle School	679	879
Craig Middle School	595	783
Purcell Elementary School	536	635
Madison Middle School	520	785
Clack Middle School	513	707
Texas Leadership of Abilene	484	727
Ortiz Elementary School	447	484
Taylor Elementary School	433	658
Austin Elementary School	431	724
Dyess Elementary School	424	617
Bowie Elementary School	416	476
Bassetti Elementary School	409	553
Stafford Elementary School	394	447
Martinez Elementary School	388	412
Bonham Elementary School	379	482
Merkel Elementary School	339	565
Alcorta Elementary School	317	451
Thomas Elementary School	309	414
Ward Elementary School	258	494
Wylie High School	257	1,467
Wylie East Elementary School	237	789
Wylie West Junior High School	232	972
Academy for Technology Engineering Math & Science	189	372
Merkel High School	158	327
Wylie West Early Childhood Center	149	421
Wylie East Junior High School	139	524
Lawn Elementary School	136	400
Merkel Middle School	126	248
Woodson Center for Excellence	118	139
Premier High School of Abilene	114	146
Wylie West Intermediate School	111	459
Wylie West Elementary School	89	428
Trent Independent School District	88	131
DAEP	85	100
Buffalo Gap Elementary School	77	394
Jim Ned Middle School	76	373
Jim Ned High School	70	457
Juvenile Detention Center	6	11
Taylor County Learning Center	3	4
Oceans Behavioral Health	1	3