Texas Passes Higher Education Bills

The Texas Legislature recently passed a series of high-profile bills regarding the state’s institutions of higher education.

Now that the legislative session has come to a close, an assessment of the new laws passed reveals significant changes to tenure policies and rollbacks to what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick described to The Dallas Express in April as “woke policies.”

Senate Bill 15, referred to as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” bans biological males from playing college-level women’s sports.

While SB 16, which seeks to ban critical race theory from being taught in public colleges, is still with the House’s Committee on Higher Education, SB 17, banning “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in policy and hiring practices, was passed after eliciting many hours of public testimony as well as opposition from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other organizations.

The legislature also passed SB 18 dealing with tenure, simplifying the process for firing faculty at public higher education institutions. Tenure became a part of the battle over “woke” policies as Republican officials accused faculty members of taking advantage of job security afforded by tenure status.

“Over the past year, it has become abundantly clear that some tenured faculty at Texas universities feel immune to oversight from the legislature and their respective board of regents,” Patrick told The Dallas Express.

SB 1517 was also passed. The bill, filed by Republican Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford), prohibits public colleges and universities from participating in anti-Israel boycotts.

In addition to these bills on hot-button topics in higher education, the legislature also passed bills creating programs to support student loan repayment and scholarships for nurses in order to alleviate a nurse shortage (SB 25) and a House bill to tie funding to community colleges to student performance.

Another Senate bill (SB 37) passed aims to strengthen the enforcement of anti-hazing laws on campus.

Note: This article was updated on June 12, 2023, at 1:53 p.m. to make a correction.