With less than 60 days left in the 2025 legislative session, Texas lawmakers have many opportunities to ensure students have access to education that will lead them to lifelong economic mobility.
Encouragingly, leaders in both the Texas Senate and House are prioritizing evidence-based policies that support students, teachers and our future workforce through these key bills:
- Investing in building and retaining a strong teacher workforce
- SB 2253 – Investments to build the supply of well-trained teachers and reducing reliance on uncertified teachers
- SB 26 – Enhances teacher compensation through the Teacher Incentive Allotment and introduces a new Teacher Retention Allotment
- Supporting student pathways to in-demand careers
- HB 2110/SB 1786 – Builds on the dynamic new community college finance model to better align postsecondary programs with today’s labor market demands
- HB 120 – Expands proven programs like R-PEP and P-TECH, helping high school students earn industry-aligned credentials and receive effective college and career advising before they graduate high school
- Creating a more efficient and effective early childhood education system
- HB 3963/SB 2194 – Integrates current early childhood data systems to better assess needs and measure outcomes across programs
- HB 117 – Establishes the Governor’s early childhood education task force to coordinate a stronger foundation for our youngest learners
We anticipate many changes still to come in key bills this session, especially those that would drive state resources into education.
Here’s what we’re watching:
- HB 2: School Finance Reform: We’re happy to see HB 2 prioritize investments through both the basic allotment and targeted allotments, like the early education allotment and compensatory education allotment. Prekindergarten is prioritized in this bill – setting up students for strong foundations and greater likelihood of academic success.
Although the introduced version of HB 2 included substantial investments in building a supply of well-trained educators through practice-based teacher preparation, the current version removed most of those key proposals. HB 2 phases out the ability to have uncertified teachers in the classroom but removed all but one provision that would have simultaneously built up the supply of well-trained teachers. We appreciate the efforts to drive state resources into classrooms. We are hopeful the House will also pursue options to comprehensively invest in proven strategies to build the supply of well-trained teachers.
- Student Financial Aid: Postsecondary Access. Both the House and the Senate have some portion of these increases in their proposed budget, with the House fully funding necessary increases to student financial aid in Article 3 of the budget they’ll take up on the House floor this week. The Senate, however, placed only a portion of the requested increases in Article 11 of their budget passed over to the House already. Without this funding, 78,200 fewer students are at risk of losing access to the financial aid needed to pursue and earn the postsecondary credentials that will propel them to success in a competitive labor market.
This week, Texas lawmakers will continue to consider bills that would improve the outlook for Texas students. Tune in for the House budget debate, HB 3191, which includes a childcare supply pilot, in the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee, and other key actions this week to advance education for Texas students.
There’s still time – and there’s still work to do – to make sure Texas students have access to education that will lead them to lifelong economic mobility.. We’ll be watching closely and advocating for policies that equip every Texas learner to thrive.
SB 2253 would invest in results-driven, practice-based teacher preparation programs.
