Laredo Times

Zapata High School had the highest enrollment among Zapata County schools, welcoming 1,034 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, 55.1% of them were boys, and 44.9% were girls.

Data also showed that the majority of students were Hispanic, representing 99.6% of the Zapata High School total enrollment.

Among the six schools in Zapata County, Zapata Middle School ranked second in enrollment numbers with 784 students, while Zapata North Elementary School welcomed 581 students and ranked third in the 2022-23 school year.

Zapata High School is a part of Zapata County ISD, which roughly covers schools within Zapata County with its main office in Zapata.

In the previous school year, Zapata High School also had the highest number of students among Zapata 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
Zapata High School	Zapata	1,034
Zapata Middle School	Zapata	784
Zapata North Elementary School	Zapata	581
Zapata South Elementary School	Zapata	467
Fidel and Andrea R. Villarreal Elementary School	Zapata	449
Benavides Elementary School	Zapata	61