The $1.25 million grant will award six students per year a scholarship that covers nearly 100% of their in-state tuition and other fees, including textbooks and housing. Better yet, the scholarship doesn't require students to commit to teaching in Texas out of college.

As someone who has helped launch nearly 1,000 esports programs, I've seen how they draw students to school, and how districts can set up teams at little or no cost.

Under the Investing in Innovation program, or i3, the federal government gave out $1.4 billion between 2010 and 2016 to education nonprofits and researchers for the purpose of developing and testing new ideas in the classroom. But only 26% of the innovations yielded any positive benefits.