The state has left our kids in a lurch
Next Legislature must tackle unmet needs
Our elected officials just wrapped up one of the most heartbreaking and least productive legislative sessions in recent memory. What do their actions — and inactions — mean for more than 7 million children in Texas? Last year the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS Count Data Book ranked Texas 43rd in overall child wellbeing, so the stakes could not be higher.
While there are a few bright spots that give me hope, overall the state failed to invest in a strong future for Texas children.
State leaders declared fixing the state’s troubled Child Protective Services system an emergency item, and just last week Gov. Greg Abbott signed a set of reform bills into law that are good first steps.
House Bill 4 offers modest but important support to grandparents and other “kinship caregivers” who step up to take care of Texas children. The modest subsidy offered to caregivers is well below the true cost of raising a child, but it is still a meaningful improvement. This new law will help the approximately 10,000 children who are in the CPS formal kinship program. But lawmakers failed to pass reforms to help the 250,000 Texas children in “informal” kinship care arrangements who lack adequate support. That is unfinished business for the next legislative session.
Among the other good bills that became law last week are measures that reorganize the Department of Family Protective Services and streamline the interaction between the state’s child welfare agency and the courts.
A review of the state budget tells us more about how much state lawmakers are willing to invest in children. The Legislature added about $500 million dollars to the CPS budget. It’s critical to realize, however, that even with the
added funding, Texas still ranks toward the bottom of all states in our investment in CPS and other children’s services.
Lawmakers also blew a big opportunity to enact school finance reform. The 5.3 million students in Texas public schools deserve a quality education, regardless of where they live or what their background. The House worked hard to craft a reasonable plan, but zealots in the Senate stripped most of the funding and held the bill hostage with school vouchers that would have used state dollars to subsidize private school tuition — a “compromise” the House wisely rejected.
Pre-K didn’t fare much better. The promise of expanded pre-K led only to a mandate that will force schools to use existing funding to pay for pre-K, resulting in a net loss for districts. Underfunding public education means more kids in crowded classrooms, more inequity between school districts and ultimately, a less-educated workforce.
Legislators under invested in children’s futures while leaving more than $10 billion untouched in the state’s rainy day fund — an inexcusable decision that threatens not just families but the Texas economy.
Lawmakers have also seriously threatened the safety and well-being of over 2.4 million children in Texas who live with immigrant parents. Senate Bill 4 is one of the worst “show me your papers” laws in the nation. One-third of Texas children live with at least one immigrant parent. The fear of having a parent deported is a stress already having profound psychological effects on children. I witnessed the passionate testimony of children pleading with lawmakers not to dash their parent’s dreams of a better future for them. How elected leaders could sleep at night after voting to break apart families is something I will never understand.
Another bottom-of-thebarrel fight this session involved bills to end the practice of “lunch shaming” — the awful practice of throwing away a child’s lunch tray during checkout due to insufficient funds in their school lunch accounts, and giving them a paltry replacement. One out of four Texas kids has difficulty meeting basic food needs. Right-wing members of the Legislature voted to weaken several proposals to remedy lunch shaming. State Reps. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, and Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, fought passionately for a fix, but because of push-back, the only plan that passed was one reaffirming an existing grace period that prevents fees from piling up.
It was an ugly session, but I remain inspired by brave lawmakers who fought against the odds for Texas kids, children who stood up for their parents, and all the Texans who testified, rallied and walked the halls of the Capitol to build a better future for all of us.
As Abbott signed laws last week, he said he expected Texas’ child protective services programs to “strive for, achieve and to accomplish No. 1 ranking status in the United States of America as it concerns taking care of our children.” At number 43 now, we have a long way to go.