Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declared three education-related emergency items Sunday as he delivered the State of the State address in front of a room full of lawmakers. Abbott’s speech, calling Texas “the blueprint for the future of America,” lasted about 30 minutes. The governor’s emergency items relating to education are teacher pay, vouchers, and expanding career training. 

Abbott’s emergency items are newsworthy because of the structure of the Texas legislative calendar. The Legislature meets for only 140 days every other year and must wait until 60 days into session to start passing legislation. The governor’s emergency items are exceptions to this rule, allowing the Legislature to immediately begin working on those items once declared.  

In addition to formally naming his emergency items for the session, Abbott discussed several education items in the speech, declaring it was his goal to make Texas No. 1 in education, a goal seemingly at odds with what many parents, students, and educators feel has been a multi-year barrage of anti-public school rhetoric from Abbott and many of his supporters, as well as a lack of adequate state-level financial support. Achieving No. 1 status, Abbott said, would require addressing three pillars: empowering parents, exemplary teachers, and academic excellence. 

Abbott claimed public school funding was at an all-time high, a claim disputed by school finance experts when considering the effects of inflation on per-student funding, and the governor stated he would “continue” to fully fund our schools. But, he said, “government-mandated schools cannot meet the needs of all students,” declaring “school choice” (i.e., vouchers) an emergency item. He claimed education savings accounts (ESAs) are already a reality in Texas, citing a grant focused on providing supplemental resources for special needs students (Supplemental Special Education Services grants). These grants are limited and do not take funding away from public schools. They are targeted specifically at helping public school students with special needs access services such as speech and occupational therapy beyond that provided through their public schools.  

Abbott also declared teacher pay an emergency item this session, indicating that he would support both a teacher pay raise as well expanding the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program to every district in Texas. Currently, only about half of Texas school districts, around 600, participate in the program. In 2023-24, only 25,000 out of the state’s nearly 400,000 teachers received any TIA money, with most nowhere near the six-figure salary Abbott hyped. A teacher pay raise bill has yet to be filed (and a pay raise needs to account for the many other critical public school employees). 

Abbott did not declare school safety an emergency item but said he wants to see an additional $500 million invested in school safety improvements, as well as legislation to strengthen classroom discipline policies and make it easier to remove disruptive students from the classroom. In the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers appropriated $500 million to implement House Bill 3, the only school safety legislation to pass in the most recent session—and the $500 million amount is woefully below the amount needed to fully implement the legislation.  

Regarding academic excellence, Abbott said he wanted to see schools “focus on the fundamentals—reading, writing, math, science, and, of course, our country’s founding documents.” He also pushed for expanding career and technical education (CTE) and specifically declared high school career training programs as an emergency item. It is important to note here that some private schools have innovative training programs, but they are few and far between, while Texas public schools have been expanding CTE offerings for decades. Abbott said there must be no “woke” agendas in schools, calling for a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in K-12 schools, as well as “no boys in girls’ sports” (a ban already passed in 2021), and said “any educator who tells students that boys can be girls should be fired on the spot.”   

Other emergency items declared by Abbott during his speech include property tax relief, water infrastructure, bail reform, and the creation of a Texas Cyber Command to combat hackers and hostile foreign actors. It is important to note it is not possible to fund all of Abbott’s declared emergency items and stay within the state’s constitutional spending limit, meaning legislators will likely have to make choices this session. 

In response to Abbott’s State of the State speech, ATPE released a statement from ATPE Executive Director Shannon Holmes. Read the full statement here.  

The Senate, anticipating Abbott’s emergency items, has already begun working on its school choice bill, Senate Bill (SB) 2 by Chairman Brandon Creighton (R– Conroe). The bill passed the Senate Committee on Education K-16 by a 9-2 partisan vote last week and is expected to be on the Senate floor Wednesday, Feb. 5. You can make your voice heard on this issue by using ATPE’s Advocacy Central to call or email your legislators.