The 89th meeting of the Texas Legislature kicks off in January, and in a sneak preview of what’s to come, state lawmakers have submitted over 1,100 suggested pieces of legislation since bill filing opened Tuesday.
Republicans expanded their majority in the Texas House in the November election, and party leaders have upheld Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s school choice plan as the priority for the upcoming session. In a statement released on Nov. 8, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged Abbott to name school choice as an emergency item, which would allow the legislature to pass the bill in the early days of the session instead of waiting the mandated 60 days.
Outside of school choice, other legislative priorities can be found in the thousands of pieces of legislation filed by lawmakers over the course of the session. Among the 1,100 filed so far, everything from advertising the Ten Commandments in schools to expanding health insurance coverage is suggested by the state’s leaders, but a sweep through the documents shows that several stand out as especially noteworthy.
Here are five bills filed this week that we have something to say about.
Prohibiting Students From Wearing Terrorist Regalia to School
Every once in a while, a rule or guideline comes across our desk that makes us wonder, “Did that really need to be said?”
Such is the case with House Bill 340, introduced by Plano Rep. Matt Shaheen. Shaheen’s bill proposes an addition to the state’s guidelines for student codes of conduct, which are written by district school boards to regulate behaviors and practices of students and schools. Shaheen’s suggested amendment would instruct school boards to ban students from wearing items that positively identify them as a member or supporter of “a criminal street gang or terrorist organization.”
A couple things to say here, the first of which is that street gangs and terrorist organizations seem like wildly disproportionate groups here, and to our knowledge, the latter typically don’t flaunt their membership publicly. A growing number of public school districts have adopted school uniforms through the 2000s, and there is conflicting evidence about whether implementing a uniform policy helps curb gang involvement or presence in schools.
But suggesting that the youth are advertising terrorist organizations is a whole other thing entirely. How many kids do you know who own terrorist jackets? Is this actually an issue?
The second thing to mention is that Shaheen’s bill instructs each school board to develop its own definition of “criminal street gangs” and “terrorist organization,” which could lead to inconsistencies from district to district at best, and racial profiling at worst.
If the bill happens to go the distance, it would go into effect in the 2025–26 school year. Should it receive a two-thirds vote of approval from the elected House members, it would go into effect immediately.
Student Loan Forgiveness for Border Patrol Prosecutors
Texas Republicans were instrumental in blocking the sweeping student loan forgiveness plans Joe Biden introduced at the beginning of his presidency, but a bill proposed by Republican Ryan Guillen of South Texas would grant loan forgiveness to one specific group of border patrol personnel. Attorneys with the Border Prosecution Unit would have their entire loan balance wiped out after four years of employment, House Bill 184 says.
The current Student Loan Repayment Program grants the Customs and Border Protection Department the ability to use federal loan repayment as a recruitment and retention toll. Guillen’s proposal would allow prosecutors with the BPU to receive a 25% payment on their loan amount each year for their first four years of employment, up to an amount of $110,000.
The Border Prosecution Unit is made up of a grouping of district attorneys' offices along the southern border. The number of cases the unit takes on has exploded since Abbott initiated Operation Lone Star in 2021.
Granting Minors the Right to Sue Drag Queens
It’s always disappointing to attend a show that delivers below expectations, but we don’t believe that performance quality is what Rep. Steve Toth of the Woodlands is targeting with House Bill 938.
Toth’s bill would allow anyone who attended a drag performance as a minor to sue the Queens they witnessed along with anyone who promoted or participated in the show, if the performance’s contents fail to meet the “prevailing standard in the adult community for content suitable for minors.” The act calls out drag performances for promoting “lascivious” behaviors that are “offensive to community standards of decency.”
The bill introduces a 10-year window for claimants to bring forward a lawsuit, and those who witnessed a traumatizing show could be awarded up to $5,000 in damages if they can prove that they sustained “psychological, emotional, economic and physical harm.”
Also noteworthy, performers would not be shielded from a lawsuit if the minor was brought to the show by their parents or guardians.
Attempting To Decriminalize Homosexuality – Again
Many of the bills filed by lawmakers aim to introduce new laws to the Lone Star State, but Rep. Joe Moody from El Paso and Sen. José Menéndez of San Antonio have proposed repealing an outdated section of Texas’ penal and health and safety codes.
Section 21.06 of the penal code defines “homosexual conduct” as “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex” and labels the crime a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500. The ordinance hasn’t been enforceable since 2003, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that state laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting laws were unconstitutional in the Lawrence v. Texas decision.
As bills filed in the House and Senate by Moody and Menéndez, respectively, point out, Texas still hasn’t gotten rid of the harmful verbiage that criminalized homosexuality in the first place — although it isn’t for a lack of trying. Democrats have tried to repeal 21.06 for years, and the closest they came was in 2023. Legislation that would have repealed the ban made it out of a House committee but ultimately ran out of time on the floor.
With the legislature controlled by Republicans (again), it’s hard to say whether the progress made in 2023 will help push Moody or Menéndez’s bills over the finish line.
One part of Moody's filing caught our eye: His bill suggests removing the statement that homosexuality is a crime from Texas’ Health and Safety Code but would retain instructions for educators to teach “persons younger than 18 years of age” that “homosexual conduct is not an acceptable lifestyle” or “acceptable to the general public.”
There is surely something to be said for baby steps of progress, but maybe we could go ahead and take a big step every now and then too.
Allowing High Schoolers To Transfer Districts for Athletic Purposes
As lawmakers take swings at education, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access, House Bill 619 is not the most high-stakes bill that was proposed this week. But it would be a monumental change to current University Interscholastic League regulations, which forbid students from transferring schools for athletic reasons and have been in place since 1981.
The bill proposed by San Antonio Democrat Barbara Gervin-Hawkins would allow students to transfer school districts for athletic purposes once during their high school careers and would prevent the UIL from penalizing students or school districts that participate in an athletic transfer. Gervin-Hawkins’ bill is a rollover from the 2023 session, where it received criticism from coaches across the state before stalling out.
Gervin-Hawkins’ bill may not be the type of “school choice” Texas Republicans are intent on passing this session, but her reasoning behind the bill is similar. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News in 2023, the representative said that parents should have the "opportunity" to choose the school district, team and coach that best suit their child, and that UIL’s punishing children for athletic transfers is “ridiculous and an insult.”
Gervin-Hawkins was unsuccessful in the 2023 session, but the conversation surrounding athletic transfers has shifted in recent months, and UIL officials have said that changes could be in store for the governing body's transfer rules. The question is whether the UIL will go as far as Gervin-Hawkins’ full-out transfer portal.
