Opinion: Texas must invest more in student mental health

The head of the Texas state police recently called law enforcement’s response to the May 24 Uvalde murders of 19 children and 2 teachers an “abject failure.” Law enforcement failed to act quicky, but many Texas lawmakers have also failed to act quickly to ensure mental health services were widely available after prior mass shootings.

After the Uvalde shooting, Governor Abbott said, “We as a state – we as a society – need to do a better job with mental health.” Yet, the governor had ample time to make mental health investments since taking office in 2015 and governing through numerous mass shootings. In fact, he made similar statements about mental health investments following the Santa Fe High School and El Paso Walmart shootings in 2018 and 2019.

In the wake of the Uvalde massacre, Texans should be concerned with how their state ranks in mental health access. A recent report on access to mental health care highlights incomprehensible failure. Texas ranks 51st among states and the District of Columbia when it comes to mental health care access, the percent of adults with mental illness who are uninsured, the percent of adults with a cognitive disability who could not afford to see a doctor, and youth who have experienced a major depressive episode who did not receive mental health services. Shockingly, over 255,000 Texas children with major depression did not receive any mental health treatment in 2022.

Texas has made investments in school security although evidence suggests increased security came at the expense of school-based mental health care. Since the 1999-2000 school year, Texas school districts have doubled the amount of funds allocated to school security. The state spent $254 million or about $64 per pupil on security in 1999-2000, in inflation-adjusted terms. By 2020-21, districts in Texas spent a total of $665 million or $124 per student.

For the typical Texas district, spending on school security now represents 11.6% of spending on student support services, up from 7.3% in 1999-2000. The proportion of funds spent on guidance counseling and social work services remained flat over the same time period, while the proportion spent on community services declined. Clearly, Texas has not made large investments in student mental and physical health care, and the state’s own data show the average school counselor is responsible for over 455 students, a far higher threshold than the recommended student-to-counselor ratio of 250.

Quality mental health care and educational outcomes that help youth successfully transition into adulthood require greater investments than what has been made to date. If state policymakers are serious about addressing mental health, they would no longer put Texas public schools in the position to choose between more school security and more mental health staff. Poorer communities like Uvalde would have adequate resources to proactively meet their community’s needs.

Texas failed to provide adequate resources to schools and communities like Uvalde. Approximately, 80% of children in Uvalde ISD are classified by the state as economically disadvantaged. Texas consistently ranks within the bottom 5 to 10 states when it comes to providing adequate funds to districts serving higher percentages of students in poverty. Given these shortfalls, policymakers could predict that communities like Uvalde would struggle with mental health.

As officials examine law enforcement’s failure to intervene at Robb Elementary School, Texans should demand explanations for why policymakers have failed to enact policies that provide mental health care and adequate school funding to communities like Uvalde.

Texas schools and communities need significant and sustained investments coupled with common sense gun reform, as mental health is only one aspect of the nation’s gun violence crisis. Even immediate investments in mental health and public schools will take time to bear fruit and will not immediately make up for decades of funding inequities and unmet mental health needs.

In Texas, every child deserves to reach adulthood, every teacher should feel safe at work, and every community should have a well-funded school to meet children’s academic and emotional needs. We must all demand that our policymakers acknowledge their failures and act swiftly with significant investments.

DeMatthews is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas.

Knight is an assistant professor of education finance and policy at the University of Washington.