AUSTIN, Texas — The Senate Education Committee spent several hours hearing testimony on several controversial bills on Thursday afternoon.
The committee considered 11 bills regarding DEI in public schools, library books and parental rights.
One of the most notable is Senate Bill 12, which extends the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to more than 1,200 public school districts across Texas.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who authored the bill, is calling it the “Parental Bill of Rights.”
“These programs are not just inappropriate, they contradict our values, and in some cases, they violate state and federal law,” Creighton said.
The bill reiterates that parents have control over moral and religious teachings, educational decisions and what medical treatment their children can and cannot receive.
It also bans K-through-12 schools from using DEI as a factor in hiring or employment decisions and prevents schools from developing policies, programs or training that reference race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.
“Some will say we’re pushing this for political reasons or that it’s a solution in search of a problem,” Creighton said. “In reality, these programs are already in our schools, using millions of taxpayer dollars meant for the classroom to fund political activism and agendas.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has said he does not want taxpayer dollars used to fund DEI in K-12 schools.
The bill bans the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation and creates an avenue for parents to file complaints about violations. It would require districts to create policies for disciplining employees who engage in or assign DEI-related tasks to others.
“While these initiatives may appear well-intentioned, mounting evidence suggests they do more harm than good. Eroding the foundational principles of meritocracy and equal opportunity enshrined in our nation’s founding documents,” Julie Pickren, a Texas State Board of Education member, said. “Our education system should uplift every student based on individual effort and character, not by imposing race-based advantages or preferences that ultimately divide rather than unite.”
The bill does not prohibit teachers from teaching about history or “acknowledging or teaching the significance of state and federal holidays or commemorative months.”
Sarai Flores with the Mexican American School Board Association said she is worried about self-censorship.
“Even if the bill doesn’t explicitly say, don’t talk about the history of this country, teachers might be worried because of compliance issues and limit themselves in speaking,” She said.
Before Thursday afternoon’s hearing, some students and recent university graduates joined Democratic lawmakers for a news conference to condemn efforts to ban DEI in K-12 schools.
“DEI initiatives aren’t just about making space for one group or another. They’re about ensuring students from all backgrounds have the support and dignity they deserve. When those protections are dismantled,” Autumn Laner, a transgender student at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, said. “It is people of color and other vulnerable students who bear the brunt of the harm first, but we all lose. This is what systemic oppression looks like.”
“It tells us to shrink, to survive by being silent,” Laner said. “We’ve been here before, and we refuse to go back, and we refuse to hide. They want us to disappear, but we’re still here.
The push to ban DEI in K-12 schools expands on state lawmakers’ actions in the 2023 legislative session.
State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 17, which forced publicly funded colleges and universities across Texas to shut down DEI programs, initiatives or training. It also requires public institutions to limit the mention of DEI and support for DEI initiatives and eliminate diversity-related positions or conditions for employment or admission related to DEI. The law went into effect at the start of 2024. It has led to the
“I’m fearful that the many boys and girls who dream, whose dreams like mine were to come to Texas, will be destroyed,” UT Graduate William Ramierez said. “I’m fearful it will be destroyed because there’s a small minority of out-of-touch Republicans who want to destroy public education in its entirety.”
Lawmakers also discussed Senate Bill 1565, which was also authored by Creighton and built upon SB 12. It allows parents to complain to principals about DEI violations and requires school officials to offer parents an explanation of their response to the complaint. Parents could appeal the school’s response and request a hearing before an independent hearing examiner. If education officials rule against a school district in five or more grievance appeals in a single school year, the superintendent must testify before the State Board of Education.
“Senate Bill 1565 ensures accountability, transparency and a return to academic excellence, which is the minimum that our moms and dads and guardians grandparents deserve, not to mention, first and foremost, our students,” Sen. Creighton said. “1565 is not about stifling free speech or marginalizing any group.”
The committee took up several other bills that deal with parental rights, grievances and student transfers.
Among the bills is Senate Bill 371 by Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), which requires public schools to get parents’ written permission before a student is taught about human sexuality.
Senate Joint Resolution 12 by State Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) would propose a constitutional amendment on the November 2025 ballot to recognize a parent’s fundamental right to direct their child’s education as part of the Bill of Rights in the Texas Constitution.
Another bill state lawmakers discussed, Senate Bill 400 by State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), would require parental consent for psychological or psychiatric examination, testing or treatment conducted by a school district employee, regardless of if it is in the form of a survey, check-in, screening or embedded in an academic lesson.
The committee also heard several hours of testimony on Senate Bill 13, authored by Sen. Paxton, which deals with explicit or inappropriate content in library books. SB 13 would allow parents to review materials at their child’s school and create a list of items that cannot be checked out or used by that child. It would require school libraries to allow parents to obtain a written list of books and other items that their child has checked out.
Under SB 13, libraries are held to the same standards the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) applies to what is acceptable on television between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children could reasonably be watching.
It would create local school advisory councils to “assist the district in ensuring that local community values are reflected in each school library catalog.” The council’s members would be appointed by the district’s board of trustees. A majority of the members would be parents of district students but not district employees. The council can have non-voting members who are teachers or librarians employed by the district, district students, businesses or clergy.
Districts would have to consider the council’s recommendations before they add or remove any books or change policies or guidelines.
Several parents testified that protecting children from pornography and sexually explicit content shouldn’t be controversial. Several librarians talked about how they take care in selecting the books they put on their shelves, and each one serves a purpose. Before a school purchases a book for its library, it is typically vetted by teacher-librarians and administrators to ensure it is grade and age-appropriate.
The committee left all 11 bills it considered on Thursday afternoon as pending in committee, and did not vote to advance any to the Senate floor.