On Sept. 1, a swathe of landmark bills that were passed during the Texas 89th Regular Legislative Session officially went into law. A total of 20 bills were implemented, covering topics ranging from K-12 education to water infrastructure to election integrity.
The following bills are just a small handful of the enacted laws this September. However, they represent some of the largest investments in cyber security, public and private education, and efforts to stomp the state’s urgent water needs.
Chief among these is Senate Bill 7, which will be essential to addressing the state’s ongoing long-term water supply crisis. The Water Development Board will hold several responsibilities, including but not limited to developing water conveyance infrastructure, creating guidance and best practices for standardizing components of relevant projects and supporting interconnectivity and interoperability between different conveyance systems.
House Bill 150 establishes the Texas Cyber Command (TCC) in San Antonio to bolster the state’s ability to combat cyber threats. In the pursuit of expanding and improving the state’s cybersecurity posture, TCC will be responsible for developing cybersecurity best practices, training state agencies, administering cybersecurity threat intelligence, provide cyber attack incident response and operating a 24/7 hotline.
Public education will receive a significant boost in funding through an $8.5 billion investment provided by House Bill 2. The comprehensive law provides sweeping coverage to enhance educational facilities and support teachers, allocating an unprecedented $4 billion to raise payment for faculty and staff across Texas. Other aspects of the law will work to expand and protect educator rights, improve early literacy and numeracy, bolster finance and safety, advance special education measures, and improve Career and Technical Education programs.
Privatized education will also be impacted with the implementation of Senate Bill 2, establishing a school choice program empowering students to use taxpayer funding for private school education. The School Choice program is the largest day-one launch in the country with an initial $1 billion allocation for the 2026-2027 school year, according to Gov. Greg Abbott. The funding can be used to cover private school tuition, instructional materials and educational therapies.
Photo by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
