As Texas lawmakers wrap up the first week of the 2025 legislative session, Gov. has signaled another public education priority he wants on their list: banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools.

“No taxpayer dollars will be used to fund DEI in our schools,” Abbott said in a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, using the acronym for diversity efforts. “Schools must focus on fundamentals of education, not indoctrination.”

Barring DEI efforts at K-12 schools would expand a statewide ban for colleges and universities approved two years ago. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions from The Texas Tribune on Friday seeking more details on Abbott’s remarks.

His comments came in response to posted by Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Culture Project, allegedly showing a Richardson school district official answering questions from an individual who recorded the interaction and asked whether the district would allow a transgender girl to share a room with other students on a field trip. The school official, identified as the district’s executive DEI director, said the district would respond to the situation on a case-by-case basis with parental input.

Richardson school district officials said in a statement to the Tribune that only students of the same sex assigned at birth share rooms. The district also said its schools follow all anti-discrimination requirements, including a law stating that student-athletes must compete in events according to their sex assigned at birth.

“The district is not aware of any instance where this requirement was not followed, nor of any RISD-specific information suggesting the requirement should not be followed,” said Tim Clark, the district’s executive director of communications.

During the 2023 legislative session, Texas passed Senate Bill 17, which offices, programs and training at publicly-funded universities. Under the law, universities cannot create diversity offices, hire employees to carry out diversity-related initiatives or require any DEI training as a condition for employment or admission.

Since the law was passed, universities across the state have moved to shutter DEI offices and efforts. Those offices played a pivotal role in helping Black, Latino, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented students adjust to life on college campuses and foster a sense of community among their peers.

Educational institutions across the country made promises following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer to work harder at creating more inclusive environments for their students. But many of those efforts have taken significant steps back as state officials have passed legislation to shutter them, labeling those efforts as left-wing indoctrination.

Abbott’s desire to now extend the law to K-12 public schools represents the latest attempt by Texas state officials to exert greater control over how educational institutions go about ensuring students from all backgrounds feel included, while limiting how they can teach and talk about gender, sexual orientation and America’s history of racism.

Abbott’s promise to prevent taxpayer dollars from flowing toward DEI initiatives at schools comes as public education spending is set to play a central role during the 2025 legislative session, which began earlier this week.

During the last session, House Democrats and rural Republicans’ efforts to block a school voucher program — Abbott’s top legislative priority for the last few years — came at the cost of not securing a funding boost for public schools, which has left Texas school districts grappling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits and other serious financial difficulties like school closures.

Abbott now says he has the votes to get a voucher program, which would allow parents to use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private education, across the finish line. He has also to increase public education funding this year.

The governor’s comments immediately drew praise from Sen. , R-Conroe, chair of the Senate’s Education Committee and author of the current DEI law.

“SB 17 has become a model for the entire nation, and I am ready to expand the law to protect the 6 million students in Texas schools from failed, divisive DEI programs,” Creighton wrote on social media. “Let’s get to work.”

This article originally appeared in at . The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Gov. on Wednesday urged school voucher supporters to make the final push in the May primary runoff elections to bring a pro-school voucher majority to the Texas House.

Delivering the opening speech at an annual conservative policy conference in Austin, Abbott declared that the school voucher movement was “on the threshold of success” after the March 5 primary. The election saw several anti-voucher Republican incumbents lose to pro-voucher challengers, putting pro-voucher members on the verge of a majority in the Texas House, the last legislative roadblock to the policy.

“We are now at 74 votes in favor of school choice in the state of Texas. Which is good, but 74 does not equal 76,” Abbott said, referring to the number of votes he needs to pass the bill into law. “We need two more votes.”

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which hosts the annual Texas Policy Summit where Abbott spoke, embarked with Abbott more than a year ago on a “parent empowerment” campaign to bring school vouchers to Texas, holding events across the state to rally voters behind their effort. However, the pro-voucher campaign is running out of time to chip away at the anti-voucher side, as Abbott says the final vote count on school vouchers in next year’s legislative session will be decided in this year’s primary runoffs.

“This is not a time for you to sit on the sidelines and applaud the success that we’ve achieved,” Abbott said. “This is a time when all of us must come together, redouble our efforts knowing that the final vote count is going to be determined by what happens in just two months from now.”

The May 28 Republican primary runoffs carry more opportunities for the “school choice” movement to pick up more voucher-supporting members, and Abbott said “we should be able to win that.” However, those votes aren’t guaranteed, and that tally assumes no surprises in the general election in November.

Abbott likened the effort to get a majority to a football game in which the outcome could be decided by a single kick.

“We don’t want to rely upon a field-goal kicker,” Abbott said. “We want to make sure that, when these runoffs are over at the end of May, that we are ahead by more than two points, or three points or four points.”

Abbott’s campaign began as an effort to motivate voters and win legislative support among members. But after the House voted to kill his voucher proposal, he shifted to an election campaign against anti-voucher Republicans. The governor endorsed 11 challengers to anti-voucher incumbents. Abbott backed his most recent endorsee, Katrina Pierson, after she earned a plurality against state Rep. Justin Holland, R-Rockwall, and kicked off his runoff campaign tour on Tuesday at an event supporting Pierson.

House leadership, including Speaker Dade Phelan and the Republican caucus campaign apparatus, are financially backing Holland and his fellow anti-voucher incumbents. However, not everyone in leadership is supporting the anti-voucher members.

At a Texas Policy Summit panel that immediately followed Abbott’s speech, state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, said he’s tired of “playing nice” on negotiating for anything other than “full universal” vouchers.

“I hope every one of the people that win that runoff are pro-school choice, and if you’re supported by a teacher union, I don’t want you back,” Cain said. “It’s that easy.”

This article originally appeared in . The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy.

Gov. has notified the Texas Legislature that a third special session will begin on Oct. 9.

A Sept. 26 letter signed by Abbott and addressed to Lt. Gov. and House Speaker , did not indicate the focus of this special session. But the governor has said repeatedly the next special session would focus on public education, including the issues of school vouchers and public school funding.

Abbott’s decision comes nearly four months after lawmakers failed this year to either allocate new money to help school districts make ends meet amid rampant inflation and a volatile economy, or reach an agreement on “school choice,” a moniker for proposals that would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for their children’s private schooling. School choice has been one of Abbott’s top legislative priorities this year.

Lawmakers are to return to Austin on Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. This year’s regular legislative session ended in a stalemate between the House and Senate over education savings accounts, a voucher-like program that would allow parents access to a state-managed account to pay for private school tuition and other educational expenses.

The Senate tried different ways to pass an education savings account program — even tacking it on to the only school finance bill the House advanced during the session — but Democrats and rural Republicans blocked it from moving forward in the lower chamber.

In the end, school districts have paid the price. Many school officials have had to adopt, meaning their expenditures outweigh their revenues. Some school districts have dipped into their savings to offer teachers minimal raises, balance their budgets or simply to keep Others are considering all together to save money.

The relationship between the House and Senate was also after the Senate acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton on impeachment charges brought on by the House, which could make it even more difficult for the chambers to reach an agreement on school vouchers. But Abbott that if lawmakers fail to pass a school choice proposal, he won’t hesitate to bring lawmakers back. And he promised political consequences for those who get in the way.

“If we do not win in that first special session, we will have another special special session and we’ll come back again,” Abbott in a tele-town hall about the issue. “And then if we don’t win that time, I think it’s time to send this to the voters themselves.”

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The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.