Poor Texas School District Wins $1 Million Prize
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Poor Texas School District Wins $1 Million Prize
A Texas school district that’s among the nation’s poorest, won a $1 million prize Tuesday for its academic advances.
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(October 14, 2008)—A South Texas school district that’s among the nation’s poorest, won a $1 million prize Tuesday for its academic advances.

The Brownsville school district has been hassled by Hurricane Dolly and is nervously awaiting division by a fence the federal government is building along the U.S.-Mexican border.

But now, the 50,000-student district has won the Broad Prize for Urban Education, which is the nation's largest.

It will be divided among the district's graduating seniors for college scholarships.

Eli Broad, founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which awards the prize, calls the Brownsville school district "is the best kept secret in America."

"In the face of stark poverty, Brownsville is outpacing other large urban districts nationwide because it is smartly focusing all resources on directly supporting students and teachers,” he said.

The district's student body is 98 percent Hispanic and 43 percent are learning English.

Ninety-four percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, a common measure of poverty.

Surrounding Cameron County had the highest poverty rate for a county of its size in the country at 34.7 percent.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Sandra Location: Temple on Oct 14, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Good for them! Always good to hear a positive story about our education system.
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