Education in Texas

Texas is known to be, for lack a better word, a "dumb" state.  It is almost impossible to defend Texas when it comes to K-12 education.  Texas ranks in the bottom half on almost all educational charts in the United States.  Not only do our low test scores and lack of adults striving for higher education reflect negatively on Texas, but it really does show when it comes to income and poverty percentage.  The worst thing about low levels of education among adults is that it has a huge affect on the number of children growing up in poverty type household.  86% of children growing up in a low income house are from parents who don't even have a high school degree.  It is obvious that the lower the education of the parents, the higher the likelihood of the child to follow the same path and continue to sink Texas to the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to nation wide education standings.  We as a society need to figure out a solution to this problem, whether it be providing more motivation to finish school and achieve higher levels of education or possibly providing welfare opportunities only to people who have completed high school.  I don't know the exact solution, but there is a definite cause for us to be concerned of this ongoing trend.  A majority of the responsibility falls on the citizens of Texas, but we should also be working on a way to motivate the people who lack the responsibility to do their part so that  Texas can begin to move in a positive direction on the education ladder.  If the education levels in Texas continue to stay the same, we cannot expect to grow as a society.  We must find a solution for these problems and change the way things are being done if we truly want Texas to be educationally viewed as anything more than an mediocre state.