School Enrollment in the Panhandle Has Been Declining. Here’s Why.

Percentage change in enrollment from county to county.

By Mackenzie Sams - masams@ttu.edu

Nearly every county in the panhandle area saw lower school enrollment numbers in 2024 than in 2023, according to data from the Texas Education Agency. This has caused some school districts, like Amarillo Independent School District, to shut down schools. 

In a board meeting on December 16, the Amarillo school board voted to shutter three elementary schools, Park Hills, Pleasant Valley and Sunrise, citing a 12% drop in enrollment. 

Aaron Phillips, a second-grade teacher at Amarillo ISD and president of the Amarillo Education Association, evoked the closure of Wilson Elementary in the 1970s, a school that served the historically black North Heights neighborhood. Wilson Elementary closed because the I-40 highway was built too close to its grounds. Since then, students in North Heights have been bussed to other schools in Amarillo. 

“It’s more than a budget item, it’s existence for North Amarillo…” Phillips said. “We have to find a way to get ahead of this and not just keep repeating history that lets our neighborhoods fall into desolation.” 

The students, teachers and staff of the closing schools will be sent to other schools in the Amarillo school district. 

“The most important thing is the education of our students,” said Doug Loomis, Amarillo ISD’s superintendent. “They will continue to be educated with the same care and passion and expertise.” 

The decline in school enrollments comes amid a general population decline in the region. According to the Texas Demographic Center, more people are leaving rural West Texas counties as the population in the state’s largest metropolitan areas continues to grow. 

Data from the Bureau of Labor shows that most counties in the 45-county panhandle region have lower employment rates and median household incomes than Texas as a whole, which may be causing families to leave in search of greater economic opportunities elsewhere. 

Of the 26 counties in the panhandle region, only four have seen an increase in school enrollments between 2023 and 2024. Many of these schools had only a few hundred students to begin with. 

Public school enrollments were down 4% in 2024.

Another reason enrollment numbers may be declining is that Texas parents are pulling their kids out of public schools at higher rates.

Senate Bill 2, the school voucher bill that would give taxpayer money to families seeking to enroll their children in private school, has brought more attention to private and charter schools in the state. 

S.B. 2 hasn’t passed the Texas House yet, it has passed the Senate and is expected to go through, possibly in an altered form. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey already shows an increase in private school enrollments in Texas. 

It is unclear how the new Trump administration policies on education may affect enrollment in the panhandle going forward. Of the 60 executive orders the president has signed since coming into office, several involve education. These orders range from the removal of diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives from government programs to a ban on using children’s preferred pronouns in the classroom. 

President Trump’s immigration policies may also affect public school enrollment in the future, particularly as the panhandle area has a large immigrant population. Along with his promise to mass deport undocumented immigrants and end birthright citizenship, Trump has also signed an order allowing ICE into schools. 

Many of these orders have already been challenged in court and their effect on public education remains to be seen.