Panhandle Times

Gus Birdwell Elementary School had the highest enrollment among Hansford County schools, welcoming 357 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, 53.8% of them were boys, and 46.2% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were Hispanic, representing 65.5% of the Gus Birdwell Elementary School total enrollment.

Among the seven schools in Hansford County, Spearman High School ranked second in enrollment numbers with 223 students, while Spearman Junior High School welcomed 163 students and ranked third in the 2022-23 school year.

Gus Birdwell Elementary School is a part of Spearman ISD, which roughly covers schools within Hansford County with its main office in Spearman.

In the previous school year, Gus Birdwell Elementary School also had the highest number of students among Hansford 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
Gus Birdwell Elementary School	Spearman	357
Spearman High School	Spearman	223
Spearman Junior High School	Spearman	163
Gruver Elementary School	Gruver	159
Gruver High School	Gruver	153
Gruver Junior High School	Gruver	129
Pringle-Morse Schools	Morse	107