Higher education in Texas: What lawmakers hope to tackle in the 89th legislative session

In the legislative session last year, Texas lawmakers revamped the state's community college financing model, boosted research funding at several universities and invested billions in higher education.

Lawmakers also passed controversial measures dealing with higher education such as Senate Bill 17, which bars public colleges and universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices or performing those functions, and SB 18, a law to further regulate how a tenured professor can be fired.

With the 89th legislative session set to begin in January, Texas' higher education is again in the crosshairs, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers having disparate views on postsecondary education, officials told the American-Statesman.

More: 'Exhausted', 'confused,' 'unprecedented': Texas professors, students reflect on DEI ban

GOP priorities will include fighting 'woke,' identity politics

At a policy summit hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, in downtown Austin last week, conservative panelists, including state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, called Texas a leader in the fight against "woke" ideologies — also referred to as identity politics — on college campuses. They also said Texas is far from done.

"We're going to ask some very tough questions to make sure that it's actually being enacted in the way that the bill intended," Bettencourt, who serves on the Senate Education Committee, said about SB 17, which bars DEI.

Sherry Sylvester, a senior policy fellow at the foundation, said at the panel that SB 17 is "the strongest (law) in the nation to fight institutionalized woke," but that it could take decades to fully address "illiberalism on campuses and restore intellectual diversity.

In an interview with the Statesman, Sylvester said she wants every student to succeed and have equal access to resources.

The excited crowd was vocal during the panel session, agreeing with Bettencourt and asking questions about what further action the Legislature would take to curb DEI policies ― which panelists called ineffective and not meaningfully impactful ― and perceived "illiberalism" on campuses.

More: Gov. Greg Abbott touts Texas as leader in higher education, workforce development

In response to a question about further limiting tenure protections, Bettencourt told the crowd that "everything's on the table" for the next session.

"We filed bills about tenure last session; I expect we'll file bills about tenure again this session," he said.

Bettencourt also spoke against faculty senates. At the panel, he accused faculty senates of convening to circumvent SB 17 and censoring presidents such as a fellow panelist, West Texas A&M President Walter Wendler, who was presented with a lawsuit from student leaders and a vote of no confidence from faculty after he canceled a drag show on the small campus on the outskirts of Amarillo.

"We need a preemption bill about faculty senate so that they don't stray into things like censorship on public policy issues, like they did with President Wendler," Bettencourt said in an interview after the panel.

Bettencourt told the audience he will probably file a bill that will bar faculty senates from passing items against the state of Texas.

Democrats hope to repeal Texas SB 17, lament anti-DEI push

Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin, who serves on the House Higher Education Committee, told the Statesman that SB 17 and SB 18 are "major steps backwards" that "micromanage" institutions to their detriment. Next session, he hopes to repeal the anti-DEI law.

"We don't even know how bad that is yet for our education system, but we know that it's going to be harder for kids, especially minorities and first generation, to be able to succeed in our school and want to come to our schools, and the same for faculty," Bucy said. "Our cultural wars are going to make Texas less inclusive."

In past news: Texas SB 17 bans DEI in colleges. So why did UT end a program for undocumented students?

Bucy hopes to further Texas' investment in higher education next session by having an across-the-board pay raise for all university employees and addressing food insecurity for students.

"Not only are we having cultural wars on these faculty and the staff at universities to push some extremist right agenda; we're also not giving them enough money to be here," he said. "So the incentive to bring the best and the brightest to our universities to work here is not there right now."

Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, who also serves on the Higher Education Committee, said she hopes lawmakers in the next session address affordability and accessibility.

She said the 88th session was very positive for higher education funding but lamented that SB 17 is a "black eye" that has caused students to lose support systems in schools.

"It's a distraction," Howard said. "We don't need to be creating problems out of nothing. We need to be focused on the workforce needs to our state and ensuring Texans (have) pathways to earning a livable wage and supporting their families, paying their taxes and living the Texas dream."

Anti-DEI bills increasing nationally

Heidi Tseu, assistant vice president of national engagement at the American Council on Education, a national higher education association that aims to shape policy, said a "flurry" of DEI bills have been filed at state legislatures across the country in the past couple of years.

"What we've broadly seen is these are targeting specific, very specific things," Tseu said. "There are think tanks that have put out guidance on how to push back on the 'woke' culture. So you're seeing the language being replicated across these different states."

Twenty-eight states have introduced bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion since 2023, the Chronicle of Higher Education's DEI Legislation Tracker states. Eleven have become law.

More: University of Texas students protest state ban on university DEI policies, offices

College campuses are naturally prone to talk about cultural issues, Tseu said. But these bills now bring up a question of "institutional autonomy."

"The reality is that their campuses are part of these communities across the country, and they're serving their community populations," Tseu said. "It's the presidents that need the autonomy and the independence to be able to form the right cultural climate in order to best support and welcome their students and prepare the future generation of leaders."

The 89th legislative session will kick off Jan. 14, with the early bill filing period beginning Nov. 11.

What's needed now nationally, Tseu said, is better focus and understanding of relationships between elected officials, the public and the institutions as it pertains to governing higher education.

"Engagement is key; understanding is key," Tseu said. "We need to really think about how to continue focusing on the tradition of higher ed."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature: GOP, Democrats diverge on higher education goals