Workforce & Education in Texas

DISD parents trust the private sector over the government to provide a high-speed internet network and they overwhelmingly believe that a government-built network would result in higher property taxes.

(DALLAS, Texas, Jan. 13, 2022) — Hispanic families in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) have nearly universal access to high-speed internet service, but have not adopted such service in the same percentages as non-Hispanic families have due to language barriers and a lack of awareness of programs offering the service at little or no cost, according to a new Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (TxHPF) survey of parents with school-age children who live within the boundaries of DISD.

Nine out of ten parents responding to the survey (87%) have high-speed internet in their home, but white parents (96%) are more likely to have high-speed internet than black (87%) and Hispanic (81%) parents. Among parents with a child participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), 83% have high-speed internet at home, compared to 93% of those who do not participate in the NSLP.

Families who do not have high-speed internet service at home were most likely to cite the monthly cost as the primary reason why.

“High-speed internet is widely and readily available to Dallas ISD families, but there continues to be gaps in adoption of high-speed internet that have materialized along racial and economic lines,” said TxHPF CEO Jason Villalba. “In a post-pandemic economy, we know that virtual learning modules are absolutely indispensable to educating our children. Connectivity, via high-speed internet, is an essential utility and unquestionably necessary to achieving this goal. If Hispanic families remain technologically disadvantaged, Hispanic children, who represent over 50% of the future workforce, will be left behind. This is simply unacceptable.”

The survey found that most parents who live within DISD boundaries do not know about low-cost high-speed internet plans provided by AT&T and Spectrum, or about the FCC Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. Hispanics who prefer to interact in English are much more likely to know about those programs than those who prefer to interact in Spanish, who comprise a majority of the Hispanic families attending DISD. The findings underscore the need for more robust outreach campaigns — especially in Spanish — to make parents more aware of these benefits.

It also found that parents living in DISD are more likely to trust a private company (36%) to provide them with reliable high-speed internet than a local government entity, including the DISD (11%), with 36% trusting both equally and 17% trusting neither.

More than three-quarters of parents with children in DISD (78%) believe that a high-speed internet network built and maintained by Dallas County or the Dallas ISD would cause property taxes to go up, compared to only 6% who believe it would cause property taxes to go down and 16% who believe taxes would remain unchanged.

“DISD parents do not want the school district or the county to build, implement or maintain its own high-speed internet system,” Villalba said. “Our parent-centered research shows that most parents believe that if the government does attempt to build its own system, the result will be higher property taxes.”

The fielding period of this study was from October 20, 2021 through November 30. A total of 460 surveys were administered by ReconMR of San Marcos, Texas, of which sixty-six surveys were conducted over the telephone using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software, while 394 surveys were conducted online via utilizing Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI). The CAWI respondents were either sent a text message invitation that included a unique link to the online survey for that individual, or upon being reached by telephone, requested a link be emailed or texted to them.

###

About the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation
The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation operates as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated and committed to analyzing and exploring the political, economic, social, demographic, and familial attitudes and behaviors of Texas Hispanics. The Foundation conducts surveys, polls, research, data collection and analysis concerning the Hispanic population in Texas. You can find more information about the Foundation at www.TxHPF.org.

Download the Report

(DALLAS, Texas, Dec. 7, 2021) — As Republican activists and elected officials increasingly call for a special legislative session to prohibit vaccine mandates, recent polling shows that Republicans who vote in primaries are far more skeptical of such mandates and other measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 than Texas voters as a whole are.

Overall, Texas registered voters are split relatively evenly over the questions of whether vaccine mandates, mask mandates or vaccine passports would help society get back to normal, according to October polling conducted by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (TxHPF). However, Republicans who are almost certain to vote in their party’s primaries voiced strong disagreement with the idea that these measures would help society get back to normal sooner. Specifically:

• A plurality of Texans (49%) agree that vaccine mandates will help society get back to normal sooner, while 42% disagree and 9% neither agree nor disagree. However, 75% of voters who are almost certain to vote in Republican primaries disagree that vaccine mandates will help society get back to normal sooner.
• A narrow absolute majority of Texans (51%) agree that mask mandates will help society get back to normal sooner, while 38% disagree and the remaining 11% neither agree nor disagree. Among voters who are almost certain to vote in Republican primaries, 75% disagree that mask mandates will help society get back to normal sooner.
• A plurality of Texans (45%) disagree that vaccine passports will help society get back to normal sooner. Just over two-fifths (42%) agree and 13% neither agree nor disagree. However, 81% of almost-certain Republican primary voters disagree.

Voters who are inclined to support Republicans in November general elections but less likely to vote in primaries are less opposed to vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and mask mandates than those who are more likely to vote in primaries.

“There is a clear divide between Republican primary voters and the rest of the state, but Republican primary voters are the most influential group in Texas politics by far,” said Jason Villalba, Chairman and CEO of the TxHPF. “If Governor Abbott calls a special session on vaccine mandates and some of these other issues, it will show the overwhelming influence of the relatively few Texans who vote in Republican primaries.

Many elected Republicans are calling for a special session because they know how strongly their primary voters feel about these issues.”

Voters who indicate they are almost certain to vote in Democratic primaries are highly likely to believe that vaccine mandates, vaccine passports and mask mandates will help society get back to normal.

“Sharp partisan differences exist in regard to agreement and disagreement with these policies meant to limit the spread of COVID-19,” said TxHPF Director of Research and Analytics Mark P. Jones of Rice University. “There is even disagreement within parties. Voters who are most active in their party primaries show the strongest feelings about whether certain COVID policies will work.”

The October polling from the TxHPF also found that 25% of registered voters identifying as Republicans and 24% identifying as independents said they did not plan to get vaccinated, compared to just 6% of Democrats. Overall, 18% of respondents said they do not plan to get vaccinated.

For the survey, 1,402 respondents were interviewed online between October 14 and 27, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6%. (The survey contained an oversample of Hispanic registered voters, with a total of 616 Texas Hispanics surveyed).

###

About the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation
The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation operates as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated and committed to analyzing and exploring the political, economic, social, demographic, and familial attitudes and behaviors of Texas Hispanics. The Foundation conducts surveys, polls, research, data collection and analysis concerning the Hispanic population in Texas. You can find more information about the Foundation at www.TxHPF.org.

Download the Report

(DALLAS, Texas, Dec. 1, 2021) — One out of every four registered voters identifying as either Republicans or independents in Texas say they do not plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to polling conducted this fall by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (TxHPF).

The poll found that 25% of registered voters identifying as Republicans and 24% identifying as independents said they did not plan to get vaccinated, compared to just 6% of Democrats. Overall, 18% of respondents said they do not plan to get vaccinated.

Significantly more Democrats (81%) are fully vaccinated than Independents (62%) or Republicans (60%).

The question of personal vaccination status was one of several related to COVID-19 to cut along partisan lines. The survey also found that Texans are highly polarized over the adoption of mask mandates, vaccine mandates and vaccine passports.

“Partisan alignment is affecting Texans’ response to this pandemic,” said Jason Villalba, Chairman and CEO of the TxHPF. “The correlation of party identification and COVID-19 response could have significant public health implications, as well as political implications. As we head into an election year, we can expect candidates to lean into their parties’ beliefs about vaccines, masks and mandates. These could be some of the most hotly debated issues of the election, in Texas and nationally.”

The survey also found differences in how racial groups are responding to the pandemic. For example, Hispanic Texans are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than other groups.  The survey found that 63% of Hispanic registered voters in Texas said they were vaccinated, compared to 73% of Black registered voters and 70% of white registered voters.

White Texans were more likely than Hispanic and Black Texans to say they will not be getting vaccinated, while Hispanics were more likely to say they are not sure about getting vaccinated.

“It’s encouraging that most Hispanic respondents in the survey said they are fully vaccinated, but there is still a need for further outreach to the Hispanic community,” Villalba said. “Our success in communicating with Hispanic Texans about the vaccine will have a direct impact on the state’s overall fight against COVID-19.”

The poll also found:

• The Baby Boomer/Silent Generation (ages 57 to 93 years) has a notably higher proportion (78%) of its members reporting that they are fully vaccinated than Generation X (63%), Millennials (62%) and, especially, Generation Z (56%).

• There is a strong relationship between a person’s educational attainment and the probability that they are fully vaccinated.  While 79% of Texans with a four-year college degree or postgraduate degree are fully vaccinated, only 56% of those whose highest level of educational attainment is a high school degree or less are fully vaccinated.

“Some of the same predictors of electoral outcomes are also predictors of how Texans feel about COVID,” said TxHPF Director of Research and Analytics Mark P. Jones of Rice University. “Politics is clearly influencing the decisions Texans make about COVID.”

For the survey, 1,402 respondents were interviewed online between October 14 and 27, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6%. (The survey contained an oversample of Hispanic registered voters, with a total of 616 Texas Hispanics surveyed).

###

About the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation operates as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated and committed to analyzing and exploring the political, economic, social, demographic, and familial attitudes and behaviors of Texas Hispanics. The Foundation conducts surveys, polls, research, data collection and analysis concerning the Hispanic population in Texas. You can find more information about the Foundation at www.TxHPF.org.

Download the Report

Major grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will allow groundbreaking research.

(DALLAS, Texas, Sept. 28, 2021) — The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation is preparing to conduct some of the organization’s most ambitious and groundbreaking research after securing a significant investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The nearly $400,000 grant is intended to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational development of Hispanic public school students in Texas. The grant is the largest investment in TxHPF since the organization was founded in 2019.

“The success of Texas’ future depends on the success of Texas Hispanic students today,” said TxHPF Chairman and CEO Jason Villalba. “This important research will allow us to see how young Hispanic Texans have fared in their academic development over the last year and a half. We know that the pandemic has interrupted learning in ways that have impacted all students. This research will help educators and policymakers gain a better understanding of the challenge Hispanic students are facing.”

Regina Montoya, the President of the TxHPF, echoed Villalba’s remarks, “With this vital research, policy makers from the local, state and federal levels will better understand not only the magnitude of the learning loss that Texas students face, but the impact that the pandemic has on Texas’ future workforce.  Unless we find actionable and viable solutions to this problem, in a few short years, Texas can expect a workforce shortage of historic proportions.”

About 53% of students enrolled in Texas public schools are Hispanic, according to Texas Education Agency data from the 2019-20 school year.

The TxHPF will examine existing data, including state assessments, to contextualize the impact of pandemic learning interruptions; conduct surveys to analyze the factors, drivers and primary sources of learning interruptions on Hispanic students; and conduct public-opinion research of Texas families, and Hispanic families in particular, to determine sentiment on certain education-related topics. Each of these components of the project will inform at least 10 discreet policy recommendations that TxHPF will make to state and local officials.

“The goal of this project is to look closely not only at test scores, but also at the attitudes of Texas Hispanic students and their families,” Villalba said. “It would be naïve to assume that all students, or all demographic groups, have felt the impact of learning loss in the same way. We want to give policymakers solutions that are tailored to helping Hispanic students overcome the pandemic-related learning disruptions.”

The TxHPF collaborates with the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University to conduct research and collect data. In August 2020, the TxHPF was the first major research organization to forecast that then-President Donald Trump was running relatively well among Texas Hispanics. Those survey results proved to be strikingly accurate on Election Night 2020, when Trump performed stronger than previous Republican candidates in heavily Hispanic regions of the state.

The TxHPF is planning to conduct other election-related polling later this year, as Texas heads into several competitive primary elections in races for statewide office.

“Our Foundation is taking a major step forward and will continue to demonstrate our unique value in helping explain the attitudes and preferences of Texas Hispanics,” Villalba said. “Our upcoming look at the impact of the pandemic on learning will demonstrate our versatility and credibility as an organization. We are extremely grateful to the Gates Foundation for its investment in our work and, more importantly, for its commitment to the success of Hispanic students in Texas.”

About the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation
The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation operates as a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, dedicated and committed to analyzing and exploring the political, economic, social, demographic, and familial attitudes and behaviors of Texas Hispanics. In collaboration with Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, the Foundation conducts surveys, polls, research, data collection and analysis concerning the Hispanic population in Texas. You can find more information about the Foundation at www.TxHPF.org.