Special Session Continues without Focus on Meaningful Education Bills | Aug. 4, 2025

Through the first two weeks of the first special session of the 89th Texas Legislature, there has been very little movement on any meaningful education legislation, including any bills to address abolishing the State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR). 

There have been 297 bills filed during the special session, and 94 of those have a potential impact on public education, yet only one – Senate Bill 12 – has even passed out of committee. SB 12 would prohibit school districts from using public funds to hire or contract with registered lobbyists or to pay nonprofit associations that primarily represent political subdivisions and employ registered lobbyists, essentially limiting the presence of voices in Austin that would be supportive of public education. 

The legislature had mainly been focused on redistricting through the first few weeks of the session. Over the weekend, Democratic legislators left the state to make a quorum impossible and thus delaying Republican efforts to draw new congressional maps. 

While that has taken the majority of the focus this special session, lawmakers have also discussed the need for flood response in the wake of the deadly July 4 floods in Central Texas and THC regulation, with a few bills passing out of the Senate State Affairs Committee that would ban most THC-derived products. 

Keller ISD encourages its community to stay informed and support public education by contacting your representatives and urging them to advance legislation that would allow for more commonsense state assessments – replacing STAAR with the ability to administer shorter tests throughout the year that better monitor student growth and provide instant, meaningful feedback for educators. 

Click here to read more about Keller ISD's call to abolish STAAR. 

Click here to look up contact information for your elected officials.