Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN -- Texas ranks near the bottom in the good measures of a modern society and near the top for the bad things, according to a report, "Texas on the Brink," comparing the 50 states.

Texas ranks first in the percentage of uninsured children, first in toxic and cancerous emissions and second in teenage pregnancies. It lags far behind in high-school graduation rates, consumer credit scores and percentage of the population with health insurance.

The state's poor rankings can be linked to an "inadequate, outdated and terribly regressive tax system," Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said Monday at a briefing with Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin.

Several University of Texas at El Paso students attending the briefing said the state should invest more in its people.

"We have a saying in Texas -- 'Don't mess with Texas' -- and this is pretty ridiculous. We need to be number one in education, not dead last," UTEP senior Leon Kababie said. The standing potentially could determine "whether I want to stay in Texas," Kababie said.

UTEP student Jackie Barragan said she fears her education is being threatened, "and instead of progressing, it seems like things are going back to the old days."

The report, compiled by Shapleigh's staff, cited 154 sources, including the U.S. census, the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, the Council of State Governments, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Texas State Data Center.

Texas' last-place standing for high-school completion means "companies will not locate in a state where the students don't graduate from high school," Barrientos said.

Shapleigh said, "As long as Texas is dead last or next to last in the amount of state resources raised and services delivered, we will be dead last in results."

He blamed rigid ideology on tax issues for the state's standings. Texas ranks 49th in revenue and spending, according to the Census Bureau. "When leaders value a pledge of 'no new taxes' above all else, they abandon the mantle of leadership," Shapleigh said.

Gov. Rick Perry told a group of El Pasoans last week that he's "never been more optimistic about the future for the state of Texas."

Texas can improve, Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said, and the way to do that is by growing the economy.

"That's the only long-term solution to addressing state needs," she said. "One of the reasons Texas is so successful in job creation is because Texas has been disciplined in its spending. It did fill a $10 billion budget gap without raising taxes.

"The most sweeping tort reform in the nation and good public schools all help build that good job creation (climate) that we have in Texas," she said.

But UTEP student Summer Luciano is concerned that the state's growing number of "uneducated and sick children," combined with mothers working multiple jobs, will lead to "a society that's going down."

"Our major concerns are the children who do not have access to health care and the women who do not have access to Medicaid," she said. "We believe what we heard today directly correlates to that."