State Rep. Gene Wu says Texas must do more to support public education and address the root causes of youth crime, arguing that underfunded schools and a lack of mental health resources are contributing to problems in the state’s juvenile justice system.
During a Houston Community Media news briefing focused on challenges facing children and teenagers, Wu said the state’s education system is one of the biggest issues facing young Texans.
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“I would say one of the biggest issues right now, bar none, is our education system,” Wu said.
Wu said Texas schools are not equipped to serve students who come from troubled homes, experience poverty or struggle with mental health and behavioral issues. He also criticized lawmakers for failing to fully fund public education.
“Every year we defund our schools more and more,” Wu said.
According to Wu, lawmakers were told during the 2025 legislative session that Texas public schools faced a $16 billion funding shortfall but only allocated about half that amount. He said the result has been school closures, larger class sizes and increasing pressure on teachers across the state.
“Classroom sizes are getting bigger and bigger. Teachers are getting more and more frustrated,” Wu said.
Wu also criticized the state’s emphasis on standardized testing, arguing that schools are financially incentivized to move students through the system rather than ensure they are learning.
“The system right now is only geared toward testing,” Wu said. “It does not actually care whether students learn or not.”
Wu said the lack of educational resources has also changed how schools respond to student behavior, with law enforcement increasingly becoming involved in situations that were once handled by administrators.
“Back when I was in school, there were no cops in school,” Wu said. “If you got into a fight, you went to the principal’s office.”
Today, Wu said, students are more likely to be arrested for behavior that previously resulted in disciplinary action, creating what he described as a pipeline into the juvenile justice system.
He argued that placing more police officers on campuses or arming teachers does not address the underlying causes of school violence.
“When we deal with things like school shootings, our response is not to provide mental health care, our response is not to provide social services,” Wu said. “Instead, what we say is, ‘Let’s just put cops in every classroom. Let’s give teachers guns.’ Those don’t actually solve anything.”
Wu, who represents Texas House District 137 and serves as vice chair of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, said his work on juvenile justice began while serving as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
He said that experience taught him the importance of addressing why children enter the justice system rather than focusing solely on punishment.
“A lot of the problems that we see in society, that we see in the criminal justice system, that we see in delinquent children, are problems that we created,” Wu said. “And we put no resources into fixing these problems.”
Wu said Texas has made progress in juvenile justice reform but warned against returning to a “tough on crime” approach.
“What we’ve discovered is simply beating kids harder doesn’t actually change bad behavior,” he said. “It makes kids more violent.”
Wu said improving education, expanding mental health resources and investing in children before they enter the justice system are essential to reducing youth crime and creating better outcomes for families across Texas.