Texas lawmakers debating DEI ban in K-12 schools ask: Do students benefit from teachers who look like them?

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

Lawmakers debating a bill that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in Texas public schools briefly sparred over a question that has been answered by years of research but is often overlooked in political discussions: Should the state help staff classrooms with teachers who look like their students?

The debate, which focused heavily on Black students, happened Tuesday while the Texas House Public Education Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 12, a proposal that would extend the state’s ban on DEI initiatives in public universities and colleges to K-12 schools. The committee left a vote pending on whether to send the bill to the full House for consideration.

Research is clear: Students, and notably Black students, benefit from having teachers of the same race or ethnicity, academically and personally.

“I'm just saying it's obvious that a young Black child is very likely going to need to see a Black person in a position of responsibility. A Black person teaching them and caring for them,” said Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas. “We would not want, I don't think, all white teachers in a predominantly Black school, would we?”

Rep. Jeff Leach, the Plano Republican who is sponsoring the Senate bill in the House, disagreed. Leach said his son has a Hispanic teacher, and “she's the best teacher he's ever had,” suggesting that students’ success does not depend on teachers looking like them. He also noted that the bill explicitly prohibits assigning teachers to classrooms based on their identity, arguing that doing so would complicate staffing at a time when Texas faces a severe teacher shortage.

“I don't believe it matters to the vast majority of Texas parents what color the teacher is or isn't,” Leach said.

Over half of all students in Texas are Hispanic, while 25% are white and 13% are Black, according to the Texas Education Agency’s 2024 annual report. Yet 52% of Texas teachers are white, 31% are Hispanic and 13% are Black, TEA data shows.

SB 12, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, would prohibit school districts from taking teachers’ race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation into account when hiring educators and developing policies.

Leach presented a new version of the bill that did away with a contentious measure that would have banned student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. But it also added several new provisions.

Leach’s version of the bill would mandate schools to discipline or fire employees who engage in any DEI-related efforts. It also requires parental consent for children to participate in certain school activities or health care services, new processes for parents to file grievances and the creation of a state office to investigate those complaints.

In addition, the bill calls for stricter rules on how schools cover topics of sexuality and gender in their curriculum. SB 12 would prohibit the Texas School Board of Education from adopting curriculum standards that require sexuality and gender education, and would ban these classes in pre-K schools.

Supporters of banning DEI efforts in public schools claim that such practices are discriminatory, waste taxpayer dollars and promote specific ideologies and political views in the classroom instead of focusing on the quality of education. Critics, on the other hand, have stressed that having a diverse teacher body helps students succeed academically and has a positive impact on their mental health.

A Stanford University study, one of many conducted on the topic, found that Black students with same-race teachers in Tennessee showed significant academic improvements, with math scores rising three to five percentile points and reading scores doubling.

Research also shows that Black students often face harsher discipline than white students.

“This leads to pipeline issues and explosions, which then lead to college outcomes that are different,” said Antonio Ingram, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, speaking in opposition to the bill during public testimony. “And so having a person who looks like you in the classroom is not just a preference, it's not just an opinion. It leads to outcomes that are better for all students.”

In 2023, lawmakers banned DEI offices, policies and training programs at Texas public universities. Since then, students and faculty members have raised concerns that their colleges are overenforcing the ban. For example, the University of Texas at Austin closed its multicultural center and canceled scholarships for undocumented students, as well as fired several employees who worked in DEI-related programs. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have said schools are not doing enough to enforce the ban and have threatened their funding if they can't show they're following the law.

The state has also taken a more active role in shaping how children learn about race and racism in school. The Texas Legislature passed a law in 2021 that banned schools from teaching critical race theory, an academic framework that looks at how racial inequality is built into laws and institutions. The discipline is not taught in public schools but has become a target of conservative criticism in recent years.

Last year, the State Board of Education approved a new optional school curriculum, which has been heavily criticized by parents and teachers who say it fails to give students enough context on the country’s history of racism and slavery.

Jaden Edison contributed to this story.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

---

First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!