What Texas lawmakers did this session to close the state’s workforce gaps

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Workforce training played the quiet middle child during this year’s regular legislative session. While louder, more polarizing issues took the spotlight, Texas lawmakers also passed landmark bills that will reshape how students prepare for life after high school.

The session opened with unexpected attention on workforce training when Gov. Greg Abbott made it an emergency item, signaling his desire for lawmakers to treat the issue with urgency at the highest level.

Texas employers have been sounding an alarm: They can’t find skilled workers to do middle-skill jobs like welding and plumbing. The shortage threatens to slow the state’s economy, a point of pride for state leaders. The health care and teacher workforces have also been struggling with persistent vacancies. Expanded career training would help the state meet its goal to get 60% of working-age Texans a postsecondary degree or credential by 2030, which Texas leaders set to fill critical workforce gaps.

The workforce legislation that reached the governor’s desk this session opened new pathways for high school students to access career training and laid the groundwork to build a homegrown nuclear energy workforce. The state’s technical colleges could also see a long-awaited boost to expand their footprint.

High school students will have access to more career support

Under House Bill 20, high school students will soon be able to swap a core academic class — including graduation credit requirements — for a college-level career and technical education course. They’d have to pass end-of-year assessments for courses they’ve taken previously in that subject before making a swap.

Half of Texas students do not enroll in college right after high school, data shows. Rep. Gary Gates, the Richmond Republican who authored the bill, said he wants students who are not interested in college to set off on a path to well-paying jobs earlier. He intends for HB 20 to facilitate more partnerships between high schools and Texas Technical College.

Gates told The Texas Tribune he has tried to pass this bill before. Some critics vocalized their concerns again this session that students who swap out classes will miss out on foundational academic knowledge.

Ultimately, the bill passed with near-unanimous support from legislators. Gates believed that Abbott’s designation of career training as an emergency item gave the bill extra momentum this session.

“It's one thing to fight me when I'm down here in the cellar,” Gates told the Tribune earlier this session. “But when it became a little bit more higher profile of a bill, they didn’t fight back.”

Students who want to enter the workforce right away will see bolstered career advising. Two pieces of legislation — House Bill 120 and House Bill 2, the Legislature’s $8.5 billion public education funding package — expanded state subsidies for career readiness assessments and explicitly directed school counselors to advise students on career training.

HB 120 also zeroes in on helping students get ready for military service, which the state sees as one of its markers of student success but is often an overlooked career pathway. Student participation in Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, a high school military training program, will now count toward the state's career training requirements for school districts.

On top of that, HB 120 triples school districts’ funding — from $50 to $150 — for every student enrolled in a P-TECH, a school where students work toward getting their high school diploma, an associate’s degree and a workforce credential.

An early version of the bill proposed a big investment in college and career advising but that provision did not make it across the finish line.

Two-year colleges get a boost

The two-year-old colleges Texas depends on to get young people ready for the workforce came out of the session with funding wins.

Texans at the November polls will vote on creating an endowment for Texas State Technical College after legislators passed Senate Joint Resolution 59.

Unlike other two-year colleges, Texas State Technical College does not have the authority to raise bonds, and underfunding has led to a halt in critical capital improvements. If voters approve the constitutional amendment, TSTC officials say they will use the money to fix campus infrastructure, upgrade classroom equipment and expand its footprint across the state.

In 2023, a similar piece of legislation made it through the Legislature, but was among the slew of vetoes Abbott made to signal his disappointment on property tax negotiations. The funding boost for technical colleges almost got caught in political crosshairs again this year when House Democrats threatened to shoot down all constitutional amendments over school vouchers.

The Legislature also revisited the funding formula for community colleges, which they overhauled in 2023 to move away from enrollment as a measure of success and instead incentivize student degree and credential completion. This session, they aimed to connect more Texans to higher education.

Under Senate Bill 1786, community colleges will receive funds when their students transfer to private universities, not just public ones. This will help schools like McLennan Community College, which has a strong pipeline of students who transfer to Baylor University next door.

SB 1786 also narrows the definition of a “credential of value,” tying it more closely to wage-related returns on investment for students and to labor market needs.

In addition, the bill expands the FAST grant, which waives the cost of dual credit courses for low-income students. High school students who qualify for free and reduced lunch at any time in the school year and students in the Windham School District, the high school education system in Texas prisons, will now qualify for the grant.

Finally, the bill calls for stronger coordination between the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency when giving out career and technical education grants.

Growing apprenticeship programs and Texas’ nuclear industry

Political momentum behind apprenticeships has been growing. The earn-while-you-learn model is seen as a win-win: Young people can start making money right away instead of waiting to complete their degree, and workforce leaders get to fill vacancies and reverse their critical Texas-sized shortages.

In 2019, the Legislature seized that momentum, establishing an apprenticeship grant to incentivize employers to grow and create work-based learning programs.

But program growth stagnated because of a mismatch in state law and federal policy. The 2019 law required apprenticeship programs to get approval from the U.S. Department of Labor. Meanwhile, the federal agency ceased action on this type of program in recent years. TWC’s hands were effectively tied and couldn’t take advantage of the grant.

House Bill 3260 modifies state law to allow TWC to grow the program without dependence on the U.S. Department of Labor.

Texas lawmakers are also developing the worker pipeline for an emerging energy sector. As hopes build for Texas to lead the way in advanced nuclear energy, Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, zeroed in on training young people around the state to carry out nuclear-grade welding and radiological monitoring.

Senate Bill 1535 directs the Texas Workforce Commission to create an advanced nuclear workforce development program. The workforce agency would determine curriculum requirements for degree programs that would meet industry needs.

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

Disclosure: Baylor University has been financial supporters 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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