The 89th Texas Legislature kicks off on Jan. 14, and our team at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is poised to closely track and advocate for proposed bills that will impact education, income and health in North Texas.  

To guide our advocacy efforts over the 140-day legislative session, we’ve identified three top-line legislative priorities that would have a significant impact on our North Texas neighbors. These important topics have the potential to undergo big policy changes this session and are aligned with our Aspire United 2030 Goals supporting third grade reading proficiency, living wage attainment, and access to affordable health care insurance.    

We invite all members of the Live United movement to learn a bit more about each legislative priority and how it would impact our region. Then, get ready to advocate with us throughout the legislative session to speak up and speak out for North Texas. 

Priority #1: Improve Early Literacy and Numeracy through Effective Strategies and Interventions  

In North Texas, less than half of third graders are reading on grade level, and around 40% of Dallas students are meeting math grade-level standards. Research consistently shows that students who learn to read by third grade are four times more likely to graduate from high school and earn a living wage or higher. And early math skills and numeracy (the ability to understand numbers) are a predictor of academic success across subjects.  

United Way and our advocacy partners will focus on promoting legislation that: 

• Expands early education allotment to include pre-k partnerships 

• Strengthens early literacy and numeracy screening policies  

• Adjusts school calendar days to include more instructional time  

• Leverages out-of-school time and reading intervention programming to help close gaps in early literacy, numeracy and complement classroom instruction   

Priority #2: Increase Access to Affordable, High-Quality Childcare and Early Childhood Education Programs 

Working parents are struggling to find affordable childcare that will allow them to work and provide for their families. There are 20 childcare deserts and 96 childcare subsidy deserts for low-income working families in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Insufficient childcare costs the Texas economy $9 billion in economic loss. The end of pandemic funding for childcare providers and shortage of childcare workers have only exacerbated childcare access challenges.  

United Way joins its advocacy partners in supporting innovation and legislation that:  

• Strengthens the Child Care Services program, which provides childcare scholarships to low-income working parents 

• Builds up the supply of childcare programs that meet specific and urgent needs 

• Ensures childcare programs can recruit and retain qualified and effective staff    

Priority #3: Protect and Strengthen Food Access Systems and Healthy Outcomes  

Food insecurity impacts nearly 5 million residents in Texas—a third of whom are children. North Texas ranks as the fourth largest area of food insecurity, where one in seven people face hunger. Lack of access to fresh, quality, nutritious food can lead to adverse health outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer.  If families are struggling to put food on the table, then the entire family unit suffers.  

United Way will support legislation and efforts to improve food access system administration that:  

• Eliminates the backlog of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) application program and increases efficiencies 

• Reinstitutes the Summer Meals Program to prevent hunger and provide necessary resources for hard-working families during the summertime months 

• Streamlines the benefits reimbursement process that will improve system processing inefficiencies in SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF that have led to wrongful denials and delays 

To take a deeper dive into these three top-line priorities, watch on demand our All Eyes on Austin policy pre-briefing webinar series and hear from local subject-matter experts on these policy topics affecting the North Texas region.    

Additional Priorities 

In addition to these top three priorities, we will continue to advocate for policy and legislation that achieves the following goals:  

• Increases the supply of affordable housing and housing stability for low-income workers and families 

• Improves access to financial education, financial coaching support, fair lending and other financial resources 

• Strengthens maternal and child health outcomes and reduce health disparities 

• Expands prevention and early intervention services that divert families away from child welfare, juvenile justice and criminal justice systems 

• Improves comprehensive health by expanding access to affordable and quality physical, mental and behavioral healthcare services and insurance coverage 

• Increases access to reliable and affordable broadband, hardware and devices, digital skills training, cybersecurity awareness and innovations in artificial intelligence 

• Expands pathways to college and career readiness and ensure access to postsecondary opportunities 

• Strengthens democracy through voter education and civic engagement and ensures that our elections are accessible, efficient and safe 

Advocate with United Way 

When we speak up, united, we can make lasting change a reality in North Texas. Join us as we advocate for policies that will improve education, income and health, expand opportunities for our neighbors and drive systemic change. 

There are two ways you can get involved right now: 

1. Sign up to receive our Advocacy Alerts and Policy in Brief newsletter: Throughout the legislative session, we’ll keep you up to date on our policy priorities and let you know how and when to contact your elected officials. Sign up here. 

1. Make plans to advocate with us this February at Texas United Way Capitol Day: The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas advocacy delegation will join other Texas United Ways and nonprofits across the state for Texas United Way Capitol Day in Austin at the state capitol Feb. 25-27, 2025. During this unique and impactful day of civic engagement, we will meet with North Texas legislative offices to advance our priorities and influence policy that will drive systemic impact in our region. Register here to be part of our 2025 delegation.   

Learn More 

For more information about United Way’s advocacy work or legislative priorities, please contact Hillary Evans, vice president of policy and advocacy, at (214) 978–0022 or hevans@uniteddallas.org.