On Saturday, surrounded by many of the Republican lawmakers he threatened along the way, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law his long-sought private school voucher program.
Against the will of Texans, Senate Bill 2, a universal voucher, will go into effect Sept. 1, with the program itself expected to launch in late 2026. It was a good day for Jeff Yass, the richest man in Pennsylvania who donated millions to the governor’s quest, and he attended the signing ceremony to celebrate the return on his investment.
Unfortunately, Saturday was the “latest in a series of damn sad days for Texas public schools,” as Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in a statement Saturday.
“The governor bought himself a Legislature and it’s our kids and our educators who’ll pay the bill — as always,” Capo said. “Every laid-off educator and shuttered neighborhood school is Greg Abbott’s handiwork, and the only way back from this self-made disaster is for the millions of Texans who oppose this voucher scam to give him his pink slip at the ballot box.”
Just before Abbott’s signing ceremony, down the street from the governor’s mansion, parents, educators, and students gathered at the Texas AFL-CIO on Saturday to send a message of their own.
We thank our union family for dropping a Texas-sized banner from the roof of the Texas AFL-CIO with a simple message: “Kids and teachers over billionaires (and those who cave to them).”
At the event, two Education Austin members shared their worries and their anger over this latest attack against their underfunded public schools and their under-supported students. Watch the recording here.
“I’ve spent time at the Capitol over the last six weeks, talking to staffers in our House and Senate education committees, trying to share my story and urge our lawmakers to increase funding for public schools,” said Rachel Preston, a French teacher in Austin ISD. “I told them about our workload, our pay, our need for supplies. The ones who cared to listen are here right now on this stage, fighting for our public schools. And where are the rest? Glad-handing with the governor as he crows about diverting a billion dollars from our neighborhood schools.”
Our thanks to Reps. Gene Wu, James Talarico, Lauren Simmons, and Gina Hinojosa for attending the event and for standing with public schools that serve over 5 million Texas kids.
“Remember this day next time a school closes in your neighborhood,” Talarico said at the event. “Remember this day next time a beloved teacher quits because they can’t support their family on their salary. Remember this day next time your local property taxes rise because the state government is not doing its fair share of school funding. And if recession comes and we are forced to make even deeper cuts to public education, remember this day.”
School Funding Stalled in the Senate, While Politicized Bills Waste House’s Time
As we “celebrate” Teacher Appreciation Week at the Texas Legislature, the Texas House Public Education Committee held a hearing into the wee hours of Wednesday on a lineup of bills that speaks volumes about the misplaced priorities of this Legislature.
The agenda for Tuesday’s hearing included a coterie of bills that are worrisome for all educators and public school employees, regardless of where they work or where they fall on the political spectrum (more on that below). While the committee spent its precious remaining time on bills that would put educators at legal risk if they treat students with dignity (House Bill 1655) or create yet another non-solution to our gun violence problem (HB 3312), we reflected on the real solutions for educators and students not included on the agenda:
- A defined workday for Texas educators that would stop teachers from having to clock unpaid overtime every single week (HB 3190 by Rep. Drew Darby)
- Requirements to keep classroom doors locked during instructional periods so students and teachers are safer (HB 5110 by Rep. Charles Cunningham)
- Limits on class size exemptions and other exemptions to current laws on the books, recognizing the real toll overstuffed classrooms take on student learning (HB 3190 by Rep. Drew Darby, HB 3384 by Rep. Alma Allen)
- Keeping school boards accountable for setting up required district- and campus-based decision-making committees with employees (HB 2987 by Rep. Alma Allen)
These are all pieces of our Educators’ Bill of Rights, which have been sitting in committee, collecting dust while the Legislature debates whether a child of a judge should be able to transfer schools more easily (HB 1325) or if we need yet another database for school bond projects (SB 843).
Meanwhile, the public school funding promised by both the House and the Senate has yet to materialize. HB 2, with its modest basic allotment increase, has been sitting in the Senate, without a committee hearing, for over two weeks. The Senate’s teacher pay raise bill, likewise, has made no progress in the House.
“State leadership has spent the last two sessions picking winners and losers in education policy, and somehow neighborhood schools never come out on top,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, in a statement Monday. “I can’t stress this enough: Texas public schools are facing an existential crisis, and we need lawmakers to move with a real sense of urgency. If lawmakers fail to deliver, we are heading into territory that I’m not sure our schools can come back from.”
We urge the Senate Education K-16 Committee not only to give HB 2 a hearing but to keep its basic allotment increase, full-day pre-K funding, and special education investments intact. Email the Senate to say the same.
Meanwhile, in the House Public Education Committee …
This week’s meeting of the Texas House Public Education Committee revealed just how high the stakes are for students, educators, and families across the state. A running theme from the hearing: The debate over these bills is about more than policy in our Texas classrooms; it’s about who feels safe, who gets to be seen and heard, and who has the ability to decide what students deserve.
HB 1655 is a deeply controversial proposal by Rep. Nate Schatzline that would ban school employees from supporting a student’s “social transitioning” of their gender, threatening legal action against educators and funding repercussions for their districts over subjective interpretations of gender identity, including hairstyles deemed to be opposite of a child’s identified gender at birth. (That, sadly, is not an exaggeration of the bill’s text.)
Not only is it harmful to vulnerable kids, but the bill also invites confusion, lawsuits, and increased micromanagement of teachers and staff at a time when we need parents and educators working together to support our students.
SB 13 would allow politically appointed library councils to dictate what students can and cannot read in their school libraries. While the bill’s authors frame it as empowering parents, critics call it a Trojan horse for censorship, opening the door to sweeping book bans that disproportionately target LGBTQ+ stories and authors of color based on the decisions of small groups of parents and outside advocates.
HB 5019 is specifically designed to silence the voices of educators, going after payroll deductions for public school employees’ unions and other professional organizations. The bill author and its backers (notably the Texas Public Policy Foundation) claim this bill is about transparency and efficiency. It is about neither. Instead, it infringes upon the freedom of Texas public school employees to manage their own paychecks, and it is a subversive attack on the very people who spend their careers supporting our kids and their spare time advocating for better learning conditions for them.
Danielle Cockrell, a 20-year teacher in Cy-Fair ISD and a Cy-Fair AFT leader, submitted written testimony against HB 5019 after a day spent visiting legislative offices: “At a time when Texas educators are burning out, when districts are struggling to staff classrooms, and when basic school funding still hasn’t passed the Senate, this is what we’re debating?”
McAllen AFT President Sylvia Tanguma, a bilingual teacher for 25 years, stuck it out through the all-night hearing, testifying in opposition to HB 5019 at 11:20 p.m. Tuesday.
During Teacher Appreciation Week, we should be passing legislation that respects teachers’ time, their expertise, and their voices. Instead, the Public Education Committee is advancing bills that censor, restrict, and strip away protections and freedoms in the dead of night.
At 1:10 a.m. – this time in support of SB 27 – Tanguma summed up the real issue at hand quite well: “Let me be clear: educators want to stay in this profession. But respect isn’t just a slogan. It’s policy and action. This Legislature still has the chance to pass the full Educators’ Bill of Rights — common-sense, no-cost solutions to help improve teacher working conditions and student learning conditions.”
If this Legislature wants to appreciate educators, it needs to fund schools, improve public school employee working conditions, and honor the educator-created Educators’ Bill of Rights. Anything less is another empty promise.
Meanwhile in the Senate Education K-16 Committee …
After meeting twice per week recently to consider new bills, the Senate Education K-16 Committee instead held a formal meeting on Tuesday to vote on pending business and then had a modest agenda on Thursday, which included several House bills.
Several bills related to tuition in higher education were voted out of committee on Tuesday afternoon:
- SB 2847 would allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to strip certain requirements from the core curriculum to get it to under 42 credit hours. The premise is making a three-year degree possible, but likely, the bill instead creates an avenue to censor higher education curriculum.
- SB 1400 clarifies that a student may have up to 30 semester credit hours from a general academic institution (GAI) and still count towards the transfer outcome when transferring from a public junior college to a GAI.
- SB 1798, the repeal of the Texas Dream Act, would eliminate access to in-state tuition and state financial aid for undocumented students undoing over two decades of bipartisan policy that allowed students who graduate from Texas high schools and grow up in our communities to attend college at in-state tuition rates.
Texas AFT has pushed back against cruel and limiting policies like SB 1798 and its House companion, HB 232, all session. The Senate moves with considerable speed, and we could see this bill hit the floor for a full vote next week.
On Thursday, the committee took up HB 6. Sen. Charles Perry, the bill’s Senate sponsor, substituted much of his engrossed bill, SB 1871, into HB 6, creating a supersized school discipline bill. Texas AFT, thanks to the varied and expert opinions of our members, has always taken a holistic view of this topic. While the bill contains much that we like to see in protecting teachers, we also would like to see students sufficiently protected from overzealous discipline practices as these can have adverse effects on student academic and personal outcomes. Texas AFT staff offered testimony to address classroom removal and our Educator’s Bill of Rights priority to reduce class sizes to safe and manageable numbers.
On the Move: Good & Bad Bills of the Week
Most weeks on the floor of the Texas House and Senate are a mix of celebrations and losses. As the House faces a major session deadline next Friday and the Senate calendar continues apace, we’ve included the bills moving through each chamber in which our members will be most interested.
The Educator’s Bill of Rights notched another victory this week with the placement of HB 1368 by Rep. Venton Jones on the House calendar Friday. School nurses, counselors, and librarians provide crucial services to students, including managing students’ chronic health conditions, offering mental health support, and facilitating access to educational resources, but schools across the state report difficulties in maintaining full-time staffing for these positions. Current law does not require schools to inform parents when such support staff are not present full time and this lack of transparency can cause anxiety in parents. HB 1368 would establish notice requirements for certain prolonged absences of these essential staff members, ensuring parents have more information to make informed decisions about their child’s education – and to advocate for the resources needed for their child’s education. We congratulate Rep. Jones and thank him for being a strong advocate for this legislation.
SB 571 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt is a broad educator misconduct bill that passed the Senate nearly unanimously on Thursday. It would require more mandatory reporting of misconduct related to inappropriate relationships and abuse, a shorter reporting timeline, stricter communication guidelines among districts, law enforcement and TEA, and impose penalties for violations. There are a few positive provisions in the bill: it creates parity among districts, charters, and private schools for these provisions and applies these to other persons who may be on campus and have contact with students, like contractors. However, Texas AFT believes this bill does not have sufficient due process protections for educators who may find themselves accused of and under investigation for misconduct.
HB 123 by Rep. Harold Dutton would support Kindergarten readiness, introduce diagnostic testing for early literacy, and promote numeracy skills for public school students. We are wary of this bill as it introduces required Math Academies for K-3 teachers, and we know our members still have nightmares about the implementation of the Reading Academies. This bill does have some potential to provide timely and actionable data to ensure our youngest students don’t far irrevocably behind in these core content areas, but some of the language is vague and could cause problems in implementation. It also still allows the commissioner of education to peddle Bluebonnet Learning using state resources.
HB 1579 by Rep. Bobby Guerra would establish the Texas State Seal of Bilingualism and Biliteracy for public high school students. This would create a nationally recognized certification for students for achievement in multiple languages. This bill has been filed multiple times and did not even receive a hearing last session. It passed the House on Tuesday with a 105-36 vote. The Senate companion is pending in committee.
HB 1773 by Rep. Salman Bhojani would allow the board of trustees of a school district to adopt a policy creating a nonvoting student trustee position on the board. Public school students deserve to have a more direct role in the policies and decisions that affect their educational experience. This optional position could provide valuable insight into local school governance and operations. We congratulate the student advocates who worked tirelessly to bring this bill forward.
HB 2243 by Rep. Tom Oliverson would create a commission to develop recommendations to improve student outcomes by addressing issues related to teacher job retention and satisfaction, including methods to reduce administrative burdens and the impact of state and federal law on teacher job satisfaction and effectiveness. Initially, Texas AFT opposed this bill as it did not include teachers, and we were wary of another commission when the bulk of the recommendations from the previous Teacher Vacancy Taskforce have yet to be implemented. However, the author sought input on further improvements and based on these conversations, we gained confidence in changing position. This is a great example of how advocacy can move the needle even in these late stages of the legislative session.
Monday, May 12, is the last day for House committees to report out House bills and joint resolutions. If a House bill has not become engrossed by adjournment next Friday, May 16, the bill is dead. The House will still be able to consider Senate bills in committee until May 14, and those bills must pass the House by May 28. Time is getting tight and the bad bills that died in committee are now looking to hitch a ride as an amendment on bills already set for the floor calendar.