July 18, 2025: Two Federal Threats to Public Schools
Publish Date: July 22, 2025 9:45 am Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, July 18, 2025
Two Federal Threats to Public Schools
This week, Texas AFT hosted the first session of our Summer School briefings for public school employees and parents, trying to make sense of all the state and national changes affecting our schools, colleges, and universities.
On the call, we discussed two major federal developments that are poised to destabilize public schools in Texas and nationwide:
President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that will make sweeping cuts to lifelines like SNAP, Medicaid, and college financial aidto finance tax breaks. Within this giant piece of legislation, however, there’s another threat: a permanent federal voucher tax credit.
The decision by Trump and the Department of Education to withhold nearly $7 billion in funds for pre-K-12 schools with no clear timeline for release. These funds are intended to support critical programs like migrant education (Title I-C), educator professional development (Title II), support for English language learners (Title III-A), and after-school programs (Title IV-A & B).
Our Summer School series continues July 29 with updates for Texas higher education from this year’s legislative session and again on Aug. 12 with pre-K-12 updates. Register for both sessions online.
In this week’s Hotline:
Legislative recap: your right to affordable, high-quality childcare
Special session preview
Red-state accreditation moves
State Board for Educator Certification preview
— Texas Legislature
The youngest speaker at our Public Education Advocacy Day this past March. Our members brought copies of the Educator’s Bill of Rights to meet with their legislators.
When we began our work on your 89th legislative agenda, working conditions were top of mind for members. One particular issue began to come to the forefront: the right to high-quality affordable childcare.
In our 2023-2024 Texas AFT member survey, 45% of educators who needed regular childcare said they had trouble accessing or affording it, and our statewide legislative workshops confirmed what the data was already telling us. Many working parents, including school employees, find that their income does not keep pace with the costs of childcare, if that care is even available, and many educators will make the choice to exit the profession rather than face an untenable financial equation.
On Monday, Texas lawmakers will return to Austin for a special session of the 89th Legislature, as required by Gov. Greg Abbott’s formal call on July 12. Among the issues listed in the governor’s proclamation are improving flood warning systems, cutting property taxes, regulating hemp-derived products, and, most controversially, drawing new congressional districts at the request of President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice.
While the session is expected to remain focused on a narrow set of topics, the governor’s call includes language that opens the door to debates over public education. Of note, Abbott called for “legislation to eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with effective tools to assess student progress and ensure school district accountability.”
The Texas A&M University System is joining with other public university systems in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina to create a new accrediting body, the “Commission for Public Higher Education.” This comes after the passage of Senate Bill 530, which loosens regulations on how public colleges and universities choose to be accredited.
The State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC) will meet in Austin on July 24 and 25.
The agenda for Friday’s meeting is relatively light with only a few action items. One item of note is the designation of a temporary suspension committee required by Senate Bill (SB) 571. This bill gives the SBEC the authority to temporarily suspend educator certificates prior to a contested case hearing based on the continuing and imminent threat to public welfare or based on the arrest of an educator for serious offenses. While the committee will be named at this meeting, rulemaking will not take place until a future meeting.
The repeal of the Texas DREAM Act has left roughly 20,000 undocumented students in Texas in limbo, effectively punishing them for simply pursuing their dreams and lifting up themselves, their families, and their communities. With the help of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), Texas Students for DEI (TXS4DEI) is launching a mutual aid fund to provide relief to undocumented students facing looming registration deadlines for fall 2025. Donate here.
Recommended Reading
Education news from around the state and nation that’s worth your time.
📖 National program to increase short-term workforce credentials in TX. Texas is one of 12 states in a new national program to increase the number of Americans who have a college degree or short-term workforce credential. The Texas Association of Community Colleges is working with Lumina Foundation on its FutureReady States initiative. (Public News Service, July 16)
📖 More than 800 teachers left Houston ISD in the 2024-25 school year. More than 3,220 employees, including at least 840 teachers, left Houston ISD from August 2024 through May, exacerbating the higher turnover rates that have plagued the district since the state’s June 2023 takeover of the district. (Houston Chronicle, July 10)
📖 The Lege’s ‘Big Government Intrusion’ into University Academics. Expanding on last session’s anti-DEI campus crackdown, some Republicans in the Legislature are now going after gender and ethnic studies programs and faculty independence. (Texas Observer, April 24)
🎧 The Shocking Billionaire Plot to Dismantle Public Education. Texas is on the verge of passing a law that could defund public education. Vouchers send public taxpayer dollars to private schools. It could cost taxpayers $10 billion by 2030. And it could destroy Friday Night Lights. (More Perfect Union, April 22)
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