By Gary BordersTexas Press AssociationThe Texas Education Agency’s annual report was released last week. It indicates per-student funding in the 2021-2022 school year averaged $14,928 per student, up 42% since 2011. However, state funding has only risen slightly in the past decade, while local funding has increased substantially.Texas public schools educate 5.518 million students while employing 371,778 teachers on 9,054 campuses, according to the report.Compared to other states, Texas ranked 33rd in reading among fourth graders, and 41st among eighth grade readers, which were improvements over previous years. Texas public school students ranked 14th in math for fourth graders, down ...