The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Next Generation Texas campaign announced its policy priorities for the 2025 89th Texas Legislative Session. The campaign focuses on reforming K-12 and higher education, empowering parents with more and better options, and developing the next generation workforce to keep Texas the world leader in job creation. NGT has worked on several successful reforms such as improving curriculum transparency and quality, expanding charter schools, eliminating DEI programs at public universities, and creating workforce development programs for students.
“Empowering parents with more and better educational options will continue to be one of the top issues in Texas until it gets passed,” said NGT Campaign Director Mandy Drogin. “Texas is closer than ever to delivering on the promise that every parent be in control of their child’s education. The progress made in the last session has only emboldened and invigorated the school choice movement and it is spoiling for another fight.”
The Next Generation Texas campaign’s full legislative action agenda for the 89th regular session includes:
Pass Universal Education Savings Accounts: Texas parents should be the primary decision maker for their children’s education. By passing and implementing ESAs, Texas will empower parents to make the right education decisions for their children.
Expand Charter Schools: Charter schools provide additional options for parents looking for specific education needs for their children. Texas should remove the roadblocks that limit or prevent charter school expansion.
Advance Comprehensive School Safety: Texas should continue to explore and consider a variety of options to keep children safe from threats inside and outside of the school building.
Ensure Transparency in Texas School Finance: Texas should make the school finance system more transparent and ensure taxpayers, parents, and legislators know exactly how money is spent.
Restore Accreditation Freedom: Texas can restore the proper mission of higher education, encourage institutional innovation, and resist ideological conformity by giving colleges and universities more flexibility in choosing an accreditor.
Enforce the Elimination of DEI in Texas Higher Education: The ideological infrastructure of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs is so deeply embedded in Texas academic institutions that it will require a comprehensive and sustained effort to root it out. Key to that effort is ensuring students and faculty on every campus can report failures of universities to comply with the 88th Texas Legislature’s Senate Bill 17, which bans DEI programs and offices in Texas’ state institutions of higher learning.
Increase Higher Education Transparency and Accountability: Texas should increase transparency and accountability in higher education to allow students and parents to make more informed decisions regarding the quality of the education they are paying for and provide policymakers with more information to assess the value of taxpayer subsidies to these institutions. The resulting competitive pressure will push colleges to improve quality and lower costs, benefiting students and taxpayers.
Expand Apprenticeship Alternatives: Texas should expand alternatives to the Registered Apprenticeship Programs that empower employers to develop the highest quality program that fits their business model rather than imposing stringent reporting requirements that stifle competition and innovation.
Reduce Texas Upper-Level Non-Academic Administrators: Texas should require its public colleges and institutions to significantly reduce the number of non-academic administrators employed by the institution to lower costs, refocus on academics, and improve the learning environment for students.
Improve University Governance: Texas should bolster and reinforce the authority of the Boards of Regents at public universities, which are legally responsible for governing the institution, and provide the tools to ensure faculty and administrative leadership cannot usurp this power.
Ensure Equal Opportunity in State Employment: Texas frequently requires postsecondary degrees and credentials for state jobs that may not need these credentials to fulfill the job functions. Texas should end this policy that exacerbates the problem of credential inflation while excluding qualified Texas from gainful employment.
Reform General Education Requirements: The current core curriculum requirements for public universities and colleges is a hodgepodge of specialty-driven subject matter. Texas should implement a common civic education that comprises the best that has been thought and said in western civilization and other cultures.
Streamlining Workforce Training and Safety Net Programs: Texas should approve recommendations that serve as the basis for legislation to remove barriers for unemployed and underemployed Texans.