Texas House committee advances legislation that targets state’s universities

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The Texas House on Monday advanced legislation that would reduce the influence of faculties on curriculum and hiring and increase oversight at public colleges and universities.

During a last-minute meeting in the Agriculture Museum that was not broadcast, the House Higher Education Committee voted 6-5 to advance Senate Bill 37 as well as another measure, Senate Bill 2972, to restrict protesting on college campuses.

Both measures are authored by Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton of Conroe. It will probably take at least a day before SB 37 and SB 2972 reaches the House Calendars Committee, which is responsible for prioritizing which bills get considered by the full House. Sunday is the final day the House can distribute a daily calendar that includes Senate bills.

Earlier this month, state Rep. Matt Shaheen, who is carrying SB 37 in the lower chamber, explained to the House Higher Education Committee how he'd like to change the wide-ranging Senate bill.

As originally written, SB 37 would prohibit professors from teaching students to adopt the idea that any race, sex, ethnicity or social, political or religious belief is superior to another. It would also set up a system by which degree programs could be eliminated if the state determines they do not provide a return on investment for students. The bill would give the governor-appointed regents who oversee each university system in the state the authority to approve every job posting for tenured faculty in liberal arts, communications, education and social work. Finally, it would allow anyone to report schools for violation of the law. The bill already cleared the state Senate.

In the House, Shaheen, a Plano Republican, proposed removing references to social and political beliefs and the rating system. His version also only allows regents to overturn the hirings of provosts, vice presidents and deans, and limits who can report violations of the law to students and those involved with the university.

The bill is part of an effort by Republicans to address what they see as a liberal bias in higher education. They are pushing back on professors who, in recent years, not only asserted their authority to teach topics like critical race theory, but also criticized their universities for sending police to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. It follows a 2023 ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Higher education advocates and experts have raised alarms about the bill in part because they believe it invites political interference that will ultimately hurt the state’s colleges and universities. Dozens of other states’ efforts to reform higher education, such as the Stop the Woke Act in Florida, are tied up in court after professors and students sued, alleging those laws infringed on their First Amendment right to free speech.

Shaheen and Creighton said they want to ensure institutions are providing degrees of value affordably and efficiently.

Democrats argue the institutions are already working toward, and in some cases achieving, that goal.

Shaheen laid out his changes on May 6 at the House Higher Education Committee

On Monday, Shaheen proposed more changes to the bill, including giving an ombudsman the power to subpoena universities for information when it is investigating them for violating this or other state laws and requiring university president search committees contain at least two regents with one serving as chair.

Eighty-nine people registered to give testimony on May 6, 80 against the bill and six for it. More would have testified, but state Rep. Terry M. Wilson, the chair of the committee, cut off witness registration early. Most of the witnesses were professors who said they opposed any form of the legislation because it usurped their role in developing curricula. They also said it would have a chilling effect in their classrooms.

Valerie Martinez-Ebers, a political science professor at the University of North Texas, said the state's DEI ban has already led her to self-censor and driven her colleagues to teach in other states.

“If SB 37 passes, I’ll be even more afraid to say anything about viewpoints, much less the mistreatment of minority groups,” she said.

Paola Martinez, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso, spoke in favor of the bill. She said she was required to take a women’s studies course that she believed would neither be relevant to her political science degree nor advance her career plans. She said the course presented critical race theory — an academic framework that looks at the role of institutions and legal systems in the country’s history with racism — as fact and without offering alternative viewpoints.

“That’s not education, that’s indoctrination,” Martinez said.

Maggie DiZanza, who recently graduated from UT-Austin and is now a legislative aide for the Texas State Employees Union, said the women’s studies classes she took were invaluable. She said she would not have chosen to go to college in Texas had SB 37 been law.

“These aren’t just academic exercises. These are transferable communication, critical thinking and collaboration skills that are essential for our state’s educators, health care providers, public servants and researchers,” DiZanza said.

Testimony ended just before 1 a.m. May 7. Afterward, Democrats on the committee raised concerns that the vague language in the bill would allow regents to eliminate degrees that lead to valuable careers but are not always paid well, such as teachers. Shaheen said the bill purposefully does not specify how regents should measure the value of a degree to give them the flexibility to address their community’s workforce needs.

“I think we got to trust our institutions to make the right decisions,” he said.

Someone in the gallery said, “We don’t trust them.”

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: University of North Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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