90th Texas Legislative Session
Policy Roadmap for a Texas Where Everyone Thrives
Letter from Every Texan’s Executive Director
Schools across Texas are closing while private school vouchers siphon public dollars away from public schools. Federal decisions, including H.R. 1, have made the state’s policy choices more consequential than ever. Texas wages stagnate as state health and food programs face uncertainty and deeper funding gaps. Local governments are caught between state mandates, preemptions, and tight spending caps while tax breaks disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Texans. These pressures are felt throughout our state, and they call for practical, evidence-based solutions.
Our principles and priorities remain steadfast – when Texas invests in its people, the whole state gets the return on that investment.
- It is time to fully fund public education, make healthcare and food more accessible, and end unfair tax policies.
- We need a budget that is transparent about how the state spends our money and for whom—and prioritizes people over corporate tax breaks.
- Our laws should strengthen economic security and worker power, giving local governments authority to meet their local needs.
- The whole state will benefit when we invest in all Texans, including immigrants, and create opportunities for them to thrive.
- And to truly seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity, we must make every effort to protect voting rights and our democratic processes.
The work to govern for every Texan begins here.
Parisa Fatehi-Weeks
Executive Director
Staff Quick Guide
Senior Legislative & Policy Leadership
Luis Figueroa
Chandra Kring Villanueva
Economic Opportunity
Jaime Puente
Invest in Texas
Shannon Halbrook
Health & Food Justice
Lynn Cowles
Advocacy
Katie Martin Lightfoot
Connect with Every Texan
Health Care
Every Texan Recommends:
Expand access to Medicaid and federal funding to address Texas’ worst in the nation access to health insurance.
Increase access to comprehensive, qualified health insurance products and health support policies and programs that reduce care costs.
Reject the proliferation of limited benefits/short term/junk insurance, non-networked plans, and high-deductible health plans.
Full funding for HHSC Community Partner Programs (CPPs) that support health care and food assistance applications and system navigation. This is critical given application backlogs for all benefits programs.
Establish a Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Language Access Coordinator position to provide recommendations and guide implementation of service delivery improvements.
Food & Hunger
Every Texan Recommends:
- Protect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) integrity by maximizing Broad Based Categorial Eligibility (BBCE), which increases efficiency by eliminating unnecessary applications for already-qualified applicants.
- Drop the Full Family Sanctions (FFS) policy, which punishes qualified, work-exempt family members if HHSC determines that the head of the household does not meet work requirements.
- Implement Parental Notification/Express Lane Eligibility (ELE), which requires HHSC to automatically enroll eligible children under 19 in SNAP-eligible households into Medicaid, or to notify parents of eligibility.
- Opt-in to and fund Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (Summer EBT) to help families with kids close the Summer hunger gap.
Education
Every Texan Recommends:
Address the school funding crisis by increasing the basic allotment for past inflation and indexing it to inflation annually going forward.
Fund every student by implementing enrollment-based funding across the board rather than attendance-based funding.
Simplify the school finance system to ensure decisions on how to operate schools are made locally.
Eliminate the private school voucher program and redirect those funds to public schools.
Fully fund current and future outcomes-based needs for all community colleges.
Protect and expand access to higher education for all qualified Texas residents by restoring the Texas Dream Act and fully funding financial aid programs.
Budget & Taxes
Every Texan Recommends:
Eliminate the sales tax exemptions for data centers and protect local options to regulate data center construction that threatens natural resources and vulnerable communities.
Protect public education, local revenue, and the long-term prosperity of Texas by opposing the across-the-board elimination of property taxes and implementing targeted tax cuts and income support programs.
Use the Economic Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) to address one-time needs and critical shortages from federal funding cuts, but not relying on it to make up for chronic underfunding of state services.
Identify outdated tax exemptions and implement revenue alternatives to make our tax system fairer and less regressive.
Democracy
Every Texan Recommends:
Modernize Texas voter registration by implementing an online registration option to improve efficiency, security, and accessibility for all eligible voters.
Oppose complicated and redundant voter registration requirements, including additional citizenship documentation.
Protect county officials from unfunded state-imposed audits or other election mandates without full state funding; and remove penalties that make it harder to recruit and retain election officials, poll workers, and volunteers.
Fund the 2030 Texas Census Outreach plan and create a Statewide Complete Count Committee to ensure Texans get their fair share of funding, investments, and representation.
Workers’ Rights & Local Control
Every Texan Recommends:
Pass the Texas Family Act to ensure all working Texans have access to paid parental leave.
Maintain authority to budget for revenue required to meet local needs.
For over 40 years, Every Texan has been driven by a simple but profound belief: our state possesses the resources for everyone to thrive, yet too many neighbors are blocked from the conditions necessary to prosper. Our policy priorities — quality schools, accessible healthcare, and economic security — provide a path to realize a brighter future.