Rusk County Schools: Henderson High School welcomed most students in 2023-24 school year

Henderson High School had the highest enrollment among Rusk County schools, welcoming 983 students during the 2023-24 academic year, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Of all the students welcomed in the 2023-24 school year, 51.6% of the students were girls, and 48.4% were boys.

The most represented ethnicity among Henderson High School students identified themselves as white, accounting for 43.7% of the student population.

Among the 27 schools in Rusk County, Kilgore Middle School ranked second in enrollment numbers with 861 students, while Henderson Middle School welcomed 759 students and ranked third in the 2023-24 school year.

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

In the previous school year, Henderson High School also had the highest number of students among Rusk County schools.

A recent study by WalletHub classified Texas as one of the least-educated states in the U.S., ranking it 41st out of 50 in educational quality and student outcomes.

Underfunding is a frequently cited challenge facing the state’s school districts. According to a 2024 report from the Texas Education Agency, per-pupil funding has not increased since 2019, despite inflation rates rising by more than 20% since then.

“As a result, many districts in our very own Central Texas region are being forced to cut back on essential programs, services, consider school closures, and adopt deficit budgets just to provide students with the education that they deserve,” Hutto ISD Trustee James Matlock stated in an interview.