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Santa Maria, Texas - 5 schools
An equity score of 96/100 ranks Santa Maria Isd #4 of 1044 districts in Texas (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $20,404 per pupil, Santa Maria Isd ranks #63 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending (Texas districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
567
Total Enrollment
5
Schools
$20,404
Per-Pupil Spending
High, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Santa Maria Isd operates 5 public schools serving 567 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Texas. The school portfolio breaks down into 3 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 Cameron County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $20,404 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the top 121 of 1202 Texas districts by per-pupil spending. See how Texas compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 9.4% local, 62.4% state, and 28.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 96/100, ranked #4 of 1044 in Texas against a state average of 50, notably more even than the typical district in the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 5 schools offering Advanced Placement (6 AP courses district-wide), a 143.2:1 student-counselor ratio, that meets the ASCA-recommended benchmark, and 19.7% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 99.1% Hispanic or Latino, 0.6% White, 0.3% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Tony Gonzalez El, with a diversity index of 3.5/100.
Its largest campus is Tony Gonzalez El, enrolling 224 students (43% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Santa Maria Daep, at 3 students, a 75x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Tony Gonzalez El accounts for 39.5% of all Santa Maria Isd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Santa Maria 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.
Santa Maria Isd school enrollment varies 75× across entities
Santa Maria Isd school enrollment ranges from 3 students (lowest) to 224 students (highest), a spread of 221 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Santa Maria Isd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 99.5% 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). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding 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.
Santa Maria Isd student-counselor ratio is 143:1 — well below typical (typically associated with unusually small scale or exceptionally high per-unit investment)
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 below typical often correlate with unusually small scale or population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se — worth checking whether the underlying denominator is itself an outlier.
Santa Maria Isd chronic absenteeism rate is 19.7% — 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 Santa Maria Isd is typically wider than the Santa Maria Isd-aggregate figure suggests.
Santa Maria Isd has 5 schools, including 1 combined, 3 high, 1 middle. Total enrollment is 567 students.
How much does Santa Maria Isd spend per student?
Santa Maria Isd spends $20,404 per student. The district has an equity score of 96/100, ranking #4 in Texas.
What is the demographic composition of Santa Maria Isd?
Santa Maria Isd students are 99.1% Hispanic or Latino, 0.6% White, 0.3% African American, averaged across 5 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.
What is the equity score for Santa Maria Isd?
Santa Maria Isd has an equity score of 96/100, ranking #4 out of 1044 districts in Texas.