Which Nolan County school enrolled most students in 2023-24 school year?

Lone Star Online Academy had the highest enrollment among Nolan County schools, welcoming 7,834 students during the 2023-24 academic year, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2023-24 school year, 50.5% of them were boys, and 49.5% were girls.

The most represented ethnicity among Lone Star Online Academy students identified themselves as Hispanic, accounting for 47.6% of the student population.

Among the 12 schools in Nolan County, Sweetwater High School ranked second in enrollment numbers with 523 students, while Sweetwater Middle School welcomed 423 students and ranked third in the 2023-24 school year.

Lone Star Online Academy is a part of Palestine ISD, which roughly covers schools within Nolan County with its main office in Palestine.

In the previous school year, Lone Star Online Academy also had the highest number of students among Nolan County schools.

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 the state’s 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.