Protecting Texas school children from sexualization is expected to be a priority for Republican lawmakers for a second consecutive legislative session, with added emphasis on oversight and accountability for educators.
Thousands of grassroots GOP activists chose eight legislative priorities for 2025 from among a preliminary list of 15 top issues during last week’s Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio.
The proposed priority to Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids reads:
Stopping the sexualization of minors that leads to abuse, exploitation, and trafficking by:
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Prohibiting taxpayer funding to any entities that permit or promote sexually inappropriate content to minors and legislatively banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology in schools and libraries.
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Repealing affirmative defenses in Texas penal codes (43.24, 43.25) and redefining “harmful materials” to remove loopholes provided by the modified Miller Test.
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Establishing an independent Inspector General for education to investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal conduct within schools and refer to prosecutorial authorities.
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Compelling Superintendents to report sex crimes within schools to outside law enforcement. Removing immunity from civil liability of schools and their employees.
“This priority is a moral imperative,” public education advocate Aileen Blachowski told Texas Scorecard. “Translating it into effective legislation will be a test of the political will of the elected officials in Texas—will they do what is truly required to protect Texas students from exposure to sexually inappropriate content and sexual exploitation and abuse in schools?”
Blachowski is part of Texas Education 911, a grassroots movement promoting family-focused policy solutions to parent-identified problems within the state’s troubled government school system. She and other public school advocates came prepared to persuade convention delegates to include their reforms in the party’s priorities.
Creating an office of inspector general for education has been at the top of their list.
Delegates voted to pick eight issues as RPT priorities for the 89th Legislative Session, in 2025. The final results will be published within several days, once the party has tallied all the votes.
Blachowski believes Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids will be among the eight priorities.
Christin Bentley, State Republican Executive Committeewoman for Senate District 1, agrees.
“There is nothing more important, and I am confident the Texas GOP delegates will get it in the TOP 8,” Bentley posted on X.
Bentley led the SREC’s Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids Committee last session. She said the committee’s work during the 2024 RPT convention “has resulted in the strongest language possible for stopping the sexual grooming of Texas children, including repealing affirmative defenses and closing loopholes in the definition of harmful materials.”
The top 15 legislative priorities chosen by the RPT’s Legislative Priorities Committee and submitted to the delegates for a vote included:
- Secure Texas Elections
- Border Enforcement
- Stop Sexualizing Texas’ Kids
- Abolish Abortion and Promote Adoption
- Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
- Ax the Property Tax
- Judicial Accountability
- Securing the Electric Grid
- School Choice and Educational Freedom
- Financial Freedom
- No Democrat Chairs
- Texas Is Not For Sale
- End Federal Overreach
- Equal Parenting
- Don’t Gamble Texas’ Future
Parents also succeeded in adding their priority protections to the proposed RPT platform.
Plank 84: Enforcement of Parental Rights and Students’ Rights, was amended to add, “We urge the Legislature to create an independent Office of Inspector General of Education, appointed by a majority vote of the elected State Board of Education, to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse, particularly sexual abuse of students, violations of parental rights, and student due process rights when they occur in a school setting.”
Plank 148: Obscenity Exemption, which calls for the repeal of loopholes in state laws that publishers exploit to push harmful materials into schools, was amended to add “and prohibit taxpayer funding to any entity that permits presentation or encouragement of sexuality, pornography, or transgender ideology to minor children.”
The final Republican Party of Texas Platform for 2024 is also expected to be published within the next several days.
