Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick released interim charges for the House and Senate this week, laying out the policy questions that committees in both chambers will study between now and the 90th Legislative Session. Interim charges shape the research agenda for the Legislature and often set the stage for future legislation, making them one of the most important signals of where state leaders plan to focus their energy.
The charges span every standing committee and several select committees, covering topics from property tax relief to water infrastructure to public health. The full list of House interim charges is available here, and the full list of Senate interim charges is available here. Below, we highlight the charges we are most excited about: the ones focused on strengthening the education pipeline, supporting Texas teachers, and connecting students to opportunity from early childhood through postsecondary completion and workforce entry.
EFFECTIVE EDUCATORS
Strengthening the Teacher Workforce
The House Public Education Committee has been charged with studying the impact of recent legislation, specifically House Bill 2 (89R), on teacher recruitment, compensation, and retention. This includes reviewing the effects of investments in educator preparation, classroom supports, and reformed student discipline policy on school districts’ ability to attract and keep qualified educators. The charge also calls for recommendations to strengthen the teacher pipeline and sustain a stable educator workforce.
On the Senate side, the Education Committee has been directed to review the historic teacher pay increases passed during the 89th Session in House Bill 2 and assess their impact on educator recruitment and retention. The committee will also study strategies to improve school transformation talent, including the recruitment and development of effective educators and leaders for underperforming campuses.
Seeing both chambers focus on the teacher workforce signals that the Legislature is committed to ensuring recent investments translate into real improvements in classrooms across the state. This is exactly the kind of sustained attention that implementation of major education legislation requires.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that the committees monitor implementation of the teacher workforce policies enacted in HB 2, including the Teacher Retention Allotment, Teacher Incentive Allotment, PREP Allotment, and other teacher support provisions. Philanthropy Advocates also recommended that the committees examine the role of campus leadership in improving student outcomes, including principal preparation, recruitment, and retention.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Education and the Quad-Agency Framework
The House Trade, Workforce & Economic Development Committee is monitoring implementation of HB 4903, which established the Quad-Agency Child Care Initiative and Commission. This is significant because it keeps legislative attention on the coordination, governance, and data-sharing structures that are essential to building a more effective early childhood education system in Texas. The committee also received a broader charge examining how early childhood systems affect workforce participation and economic productivity, which reinforces the connection between early education investments and long-term outcomes for Texas families.
Sustained attention to the Quad-Agency framework and early education infrastructure is an encouraging signal. This work, paired with the work of the Governor’s Task fForce on Early Childhood Education and Care builds momentum for a more unified and efficient ECE system in Texas. Getting these systems right at the state level is foundational, not just for children’s school readiness but for the broader talent pipeline that Texas families and employers depend on.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that the committees monitor implementation of HB 117 and HB 4903, including progress on coordination, data sharing, governance, and the Quad-Agency recommendations. Philanthropy Advocates also recommended that the committees study PK-3 alignment and early learning. Philanthropy Advocates was recently invited to provide testimony to the Governor’s Task Force on Early Childhood Education and Care, which you can find here.
POSTSECONDARY
Improving Middle School Outcomes
The House Public Education Committee will examine strategies to improve outcomes in middle schools, with a focus on preparing students for high school success, increasing engagement, and expanding career exploration opportunities. The charge specifically highlights advanced coursework, academic supports, and interventions in core subjects. Middle school is a critical inflection point in a student’s trajectory, and this charge opens the door to meaningful conversations about how to ensure more students enter high school on track and ready for rigorous coursework.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that the committees study best practices in middle school that prepare students for success in high school and beyond, including access to career and technical education, career exploration, and advising in middle grades. This builds on work from 2023 related to advanced math coursework in middle school.
Postsecondary Affordability and Financial Barriers
The House Higher Education Committee received a charge focused specifically on improving postsecondary affordability for Texas students. The committee will study strategies to reduce financial barriers to enrollment, persistence, and completion, and evaluate whether state financial aid investments are effectively targeted and structured to promote student success. This includes analyzing unmet financial need among eligible students and reviewing the impact of recent federal policy changes on student aid and institutional affordability. This charge creates space for a serious examination of how state resources can be better deployed to close those gaps.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that committees evaluate barriers to student persistence and credential completion in Texas public higher education, including advising systems, transfer supports, financial aid, and course sequencing.
Increasing Credential Completion
A separate House charge tasks the Higher Education Committee with evaluating methods to increase credential completion across Texas public higher education institutions. The charge highlights accelerated postsecondary pathways such as credit for prior learning, prior learning assessments, reverse transfer, and competency-based education. It also calls for identifying areas to improve transfer supports, increase re-enrollment, and reduce time to credential completion. These are practical, evidence-based strategies that can help more students finish what they started and enter the workforce with a credential of value.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: This charge also aligns with Philanthropy Advocates’ recommendation to evaluate barriers to student persistence and credential completion, particularly around transfer supports and opportunities to earn credentials of value in a timely manner.
Supporting Community Colleges
The Senate Higher Education Committee has been charged with evaluating the public junior college state finance program and studying the impact of recent state investments in community colleges. They will look at elements of the current funding formulas and recommend any changes that ensure sustained dynamic funding for outcomes align to credential of value attainment.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: This charge aligns with our broader priority of reducing barriers to postsecondary access and completion and our historic support of HB 8 performance-based funding.
Aligning Advising Systems Across the Pipeline
A House Higher Education charge examines state investments in advising systems and tools that support high school and college course planning, credential attainment, and successful transitions to postsecondary education and the workforce. The charge calls for evaluating partnership-based models that leverage labor market research and available data to expand advising capacity and align it with high-wage, high-demand careers. It also directs the committee to assess opportunities for the Tri-Agency to better align resources and services to strengthen advising systems and improve student outcomes.
While there have been efforts made in the past to scale advising efforts, there has not been sufficient efforts to align programs across the K-16 continuum. When students have access to quality guidance about course selection, financial aid, and career pathways, they are more likely to persist and complete. This charge represents an important opportunity to build a more coordinated, data-informed advising infrastructure across the state.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that committees monitor collaboration among the Tri-Agency to support workforce education efforts across Texas, including alignment of strategies, grants, and data.
Workforce Alignment Across Systems
Across both chambers and multiple committees, the charges reflect attention to aligning education and workforce systems. On the House side, the Higher Education Committee’s advising charge references the Tri-Agency and its role in coordinating resources, the Public Education Committee’s middle school charge includes career exploration, and the Workforce subcommittee has been directed to study skills gaps, training alignment, and workforce readiness.
The Senate Economic Development Committee adds another dimension with a charge directing study of how to prepare the Texas workforce for artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. As these tools reshape the labor market, aligning education systems to prepare students for an evolving economy will be increasingly important. These conversations happening in parallel across both chambers create an opportunity for a more coordinated, systems-level approach to preparing Texas students for high-wage careers.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Philanthropy Advocates recommended that committees study the effectiveness of workforce education efforts across Texas, including CTE programs, apprenticeships, workforce credentials, and alignment with regional labor market needs.
SCHOOL FINANCE
Continued Oversight of HB 2 Implementation
Both chambers have placed HB 2, the landmark public education and school finance legislation passed during the 89th Session, on their monitoring lists. The House Public Education Committee’s monitoring charge explicitly includes HB 2, and the Senate Education Committee will monitor implementation of HB 2 alongside several other major education bills from the session, including HB 6, SB 12, SB 13, and SB 571. Continued legislative oversight from both chambers is essential to ensuring that the policy changes introduced by these laws are being implemented effectively at the district level and producing the intended results for students and educators.
Philanthropy Advocates connection: Multiple Philanthropy Advocates recommendations centered on monitoring implementation of HB 2, including the teacher workforce provisions and broader public education reforms.
Looking Ahead
Over the coming months, committees in both chambers will schedule hearings, invite testimony, and develop recommendations that will inform legislation for the 90th Session. Philanthropy Advocates will be actively engaged throughout this process, monitoring hearings, providing testimony and research, and keeping our members informed as these charges translate into action.
The charges released this week reflect a clear commitment from both the House and Senate to the issues that matter most for Texas students and teachers. We look forward to the conversations ahead and to working alongside committee members, researchers, and partners to ensure these interim studies lead to meaningful policy improvements.
For questions about these interim charges, contact our policy team.
