TASB Tool Gives Insight on Statewide Priorities

Texas school leaders are quick to lend each other a helping hand, share ideas, and even offer comfort when needed. Trustees, superintendents, and other school leaders know there is strength in connecting, and they often discuss what to do with pressing challenges.

One such example came earlier this year, when snow and ice blanketed much of Texas, said TASB President Tony Hopkins, who also heads the Friendswood ISD school board. Hopkins said Houston-area school leaders huddled virtually, talking about possible school closures, road conditions, staffing, and more.

“District-to-district communication is important on so many levels,” Hopkins noted.

Engagement and connections also are important when it comes to advocating for students and schools. Districts know they share some of the same challenges, such as funding, campus safety, and teacher retention — even if they haven’t seen each other’s priority list.

Now, TASB is making it easier for district leaders to gain awareness and learn from each other’s legislative priorities with the recent launch of its Local Legislative Priorities Tool, a new online resource that collects publicly available legislative priorities from Texas school districts in a display map with easy-to-navigate filters.

“A primary goal for the TASB Board in creating this tool was to provide a convenient way for district officials to see other districts’ legislative priorities,” Hopkins said. “We hope this will increase districts’ ability to understand each other’s concerns and perhaps join forces in addressing those challenges at the state level. It was important to start this initiative now so that districts can use it ahead of the 2027 legislative session.”

While enhancing the visibility of local legislative priorities is a key objective, TASB members can use the new online tool to explore this information in ways that is most helpful for them. TASB leaders hope the tool also can help districts form their own legislative priorities, if they haven’t already.

“We’re thrilled to see this tool come to life,” said TASB Director Nicholas Phillips, who chairs the board’s Delegate Outreach Committee, which oversaw the project’s development. “This initiative aims to foster collaboration and connections among districts with similar concerns and underscore the importance of school boards establishing their local legislative priorities to engage more deeply in Texas public education advocacy.”

Phillips, who also is board president at Nederland ISD, said the tool allows school boards to easily access legislative priorities of districts within and beyond their regions. “For districts without established priorities, seeing regional focuses may inspire them to develop their own district priorities or collaborate with nearby boards for regional priorities.”

Off and Running

So far, the legislative priorities of nearly 100 districts are represented on the tool. Also, TASB Governmental Relations staff discussed the new initiative during regional Grassroots Meetings across the state.

“At our regional Grassroots Meetings, local priorities identified with the help of the tool have become a useful conversation starter as trustees compare experiences and identify shared areas of focus,” said Kelly Rasti, associate executive director of TASB Governmental Relations.

For school board members, advocating for the needs of their district, its students, staff, families, and the community is one of their most important responsibilities. This takes many forms, from talking to local and state policymakers to raising awareness within the community about important district issues to even traveling to Austin to discuss a legislative topic.

“Making it easier for districts to see how others are shaping their legislative priorities is especially important before the next legislative session begins in January 2027. Establishing local legislative priorities helps trustees have a clear framework for conversations with their elected officials and other stakeholders about what matters most to their students and school communities,” Rasti said.

Additionally, these local legislative priorities allow districts to establish and collaborate on initiatives that go beyond TASB’s Advocacy Agenda, which represents the Associationwide legislative program.

“We’re hoping one impact of this project is to encourage more school boards to take the time to establish local legislative priorities, especially ahead of the next legislative session,” TASB Executive Director Dan Troxell said. “It will be powerful to see all the points of shared concern among our members and help us as an Association connect the dots with relevant and timely support.”

Building the Tool

The new member benefit, which reflects TASB’s push to continuously innovate, is the result of a collaboration between the TASB Board’s Delegate Outreach Committee and Association staff members, particularly in the Data and IT area.

“This initiative was an outgrowth of the TASB Board of Directors’ conversations over multiple years,” said Joy Baskin, associate executive director of TASB’s Policy and Legal Services and Education Counsel. “Directors believed a member-facing, easy-to-use tool would be beneficial to school leaders seeking to discover what other districts are doing in regard to setting legislative priorities.”

The tool gives TASB members “the ability to identify which districts care about which issues in a way that helps districts connect with each other and talk to their local legislators. It facilitates district-to-district connections to strengthen their local advocacy,” Baskin said.

The tool was launched in January, and there will be additional enhancements added, including the ability to see specific priorities by district and filter by various categorizations. TASB provides support and training for members interested in learning more about how to establish local legislative priorities.

“This has been a huge undertaking by TASB staff to make trustee connections easier,” Phillips noted.

Additionally, this tool builds on the popularity of TASB’s Toolkit for Community Advocacy, an online resource that provides step-by-step guidelines that members can use for their advocacy efforts, Baskin said.

Having improved access to districts’ legislative priorities also helps TASB better understand what matters to individual districts, she said. During the legislative session, as bills are filed on various subjects, districts and TASB can use the tool to get an understanding of which districts consider that topic a priority.

“State lawmakers want to hear directly from local leaders,” Baskin said. “TASB wants members to feel confident, relevant, and well-prepared to engage directly in that advocacy with state leaders or even federal leaders. This new tool will help our members in their advocacy efforts.”

Learn More

Discover the Local Legislative Priorities Tool

TASB members can access the Local Legislative Priorities Tool online and view other districts’ publicly available priorities. So far, nearly 100 school districts are represented on the tool. Any board that does not want to have its legislative priorities available through the tool has the ability to opt out. If your district has local legislative priorities that are not reflected in our online tool, please send them to us via the link on the webpage.

Developing Local Legislative Priorities

The online Toolkit for Community Advocacy includes guidelines and tips for members who are developing or revising local legislative priorities. These local legislative priorities are different from TASB’s official Advocacy Agenda, which is developed through a grassroots process that ends with the Agenda being voted on annually by TASB membership at Delegate Assembly.

Using the toolkit, school board members can create a priority list that reflects the unique needs of their students and school community. The toolkit offers a step-by-step guide, but it also allows for each part of the process to be customized and tailored to what works best for individual districts and their communities. More importantly, the process used in developing the list will help build buy-in and engagement in your district’s advocacy work. When you get more people on the same page, amplifying the same message, that’s where there’s the most potential to positively influence the laws and policies that shape Texas public education.

This article first appeared in the April/May issue of Texas Lone Star.