The Lt. Governor announced his top priorities for the 88th Texas Legislative Session. Though the bill text isn’t filed yet, they are numbered and we expect them to be filed before the deadline. Here are the one of concern for higher education.
Senate Bill 16 – Banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Higher Education
Senate Bill 17 – Banning Discriminatory “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) Policies in Higher Education
Senate Bill 18 – Eliminating Tenure at General Academic Institutions
TACT will be monitoring these bills and will let you know the progress they make. In the meantime, you can send an email to members of the Higher Education Sub-committee and let them know how eliminating tenure, DEI policies and CRT would affect the rigor of higher education in Texas and what it would mean to the future of graduates and Texas.
Among the promising bills for higher education in the Lt. Governor's priorities is SB 10, which adds a 13th check for retired teachers. As promised, Lt. Governor Patrick is creating a new higher education endowment fund (SB 19) to help disperse research funds into Texas higher education institutions outside the Texas A&M and University of Texas. TACT has been lobbying for this and pleased to see it coming to the legislature.
See all the bills on Lt. Governor Patrick’s priority list here.
Comments