Texas House Bill HB 5476

Texas 2025 - 89th Regular

• Filed: 3/14/25

Caption

Relating to the coordination and alignment of career and technical education grant programs across the tri-agency partners.

Summary

HB 5476 would require Texas’s tri-agency partners—the Texas Education Agency, the Higher Education Coordinating Board, and the Texas Workforce Commission—to better coordinate competitive career and technical education (CTE) grant programs. The bill directs the agencies to align grant funding for secondary and postsecondary CTE expansion, reduce duplication among existing programs, and identify ways to combine or structure funding streams to support program start-up and delivery costs. The bill also emphasizes building clearer pathways from high school to college and into the workforce. It specifically encourages grant structures that support dual credit, postsecondary credentials for secondary students, and CTE credentials of value tied to high-demand occupations and state workforce needs. In doing so, it aims to make CTE funding more strategic, comprehensive, and responsive to workforce development goals.

Impact

HB 5476 would amend Chapter 2308A of the Government Code to add new coordination duties for the agency, coordinating board, and commission. It would not create a new grant program, but it would change how existing competitive CTE grants are planned and administered by requiring interagency alignment, reduced duplication, and prioritization of funding for facilities, equipment, instructional materials, and staffing where possible. The bill expressly references programs such as Jobs and Education for Texans, P-TECH, Texas Reskilling and Upskilling through Education, and federal Perkins Act programs, so those programs would be among the affected funding streams.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have been generally favorable in concept, as reflected by its placement in the Trade, Workforce & Economic Development committees and its focus on workforce-aligned education funding. However, there is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided materials, and the bill was ultimately withdrawn from the schedule on April 15, 2025. That suggests the measure did not advance to a recorded floor vote, but the available record does not show overt opposition or support statements.

Contention

The main policy issue raised by the bill’s text is how much discretion the tri-agency partners should have in coordinating and potentially combining grant funding streams across separate education and workforce programs. Potential points of contention include whether centralized coordination could limit program flexibility, whether existing grant programs would be duplicated or displaced, and how to balance secondary education priorities with postsecondary and workforce needs. The bill’s emphasis on aligning funding with high-demand fields and credentials of value may also prompt debate over which occupations and programs should receive priority.