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Columbus, Texas - 4 schools
An equity score of 33/100 ranks Columbus Isd #803 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,966 per pupil, Columbus Isd ranks #793 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
1,610
Total Enrollment
4
Schools
$11,966
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Columbus Isd operates 4 public schools serving 1,610 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 2 high, 1 combined, 1 middle schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Colorado County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,966 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 69.8% local, 14.2% state, and 16.0% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers. The district's equity score is 33/100, ranked #803 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, notably less even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 4 schools offering Advanced Placement (7 AP courses district-wide), a 798:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 17.4% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 45.1% White, 45.1% Hispanic or Latino, 5.9% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Columbus El, with a diversity index of 61.8/100.
Its largest campus is Columbus El, enrolling 798 students (48% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Columbus Alternative School, at 14 students, a 57x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Columbus El accounts for 48.1% of all Columbus Isd student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Columbus Isd a distant remainder — means Columbus Isd-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: combined. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Columbus Isd school enrollment varies 57× across entities
Columbus Isd school enrollment ranges from 14 students (lowest) to 798 students (highest), a spread of 784 students. That ratio is among the widest observed and reflects extreme enrollment heterogeneity, the district operates both small specialty programs and large comprehensive campuses inside a single budgeting unit. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Columbus Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 54.1% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Columbus Isd student-counselor ratio is 798:1 — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.
Columbus Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 17.4% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Columbus Isd is typically wider than the Columbus Isd-aggregate figure suggests.