Texas is urged to take trade school oversight away from its workforce agency

The Sunset Advisory Commission hears public testimony Wednesday on the Texas Workforce Commission, and the staff report on the table says the agency has done such a poor job policing private trade schools that the work should be handed to somebody else. Anyone wanting to speak has to turn in a card that morning; registration closes at 11:30 a.m., or earlier if the chair cuts off testimony on an agency.

Sunset is the Legislature’s periodic audit of whether a state agency should keep existing. The workforce agency and the Texas Workforce Investment Council are both abolished on September 1, 2027 unless lawmakers vote to keep them, and on the same date the agency loses its authority to run the state’s preferred-purchasing program for people with disabilities. Sunset staff recommend keeping all three — the agency and the council for another 12 years — and open by saying that “transformative changes at TWC have stalled.”

The sharpest recommendation is the trade schools. Texas licenses career schools and colleges, the private outfits that train welders, barbers and medical assistants, and staff found the workforce agency’s handling of them “insufficient and ill-equipped to protect students and the public.” They want the job moved to the Department of Licensing and Regulation. That agency’s own written response agrees the current setup “has struggled to perform basic regulatory functions” but says it does not have the staff and will need more money to take the work on. The workforce agency said it agrees but defers to the Legislature, and that if lawmakers order the move it could finish the handoff by September 1, 2028.

Other recommendations would let the agency put bank levies on people who collected unemployment benefits by fraud, spell out its authority to verify a claimant’s identity, and abolish the regional management layer in vocational rehabilitation — freeing, staff estimate, more than $10.6 million a year and about 200 positions. Twenty-three comments are already posted, 18 of them from outside state government, and child care runs through most of the ones filed by advocacy groups. The state’s separate abolishment date for the disabilities purchasing program would be deleted.

No decisions come Wednesday. The commission also approves its review schedule for the 16 entities in this cycle, and votes on the agencies at a separate meeting at least a month later. Written testimony is taken through the close of business Monday, August 17.

Meeting at a glance

Commission members

• Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Brenham — chair. District 18.
• Rep. Lacey Hull, Houston — vice chair. District 138.
• Sen. César Blanco, El Paso — District 29.
• Sen. Donna Campbell, M.D., New Braunfels — District 25.
• Sen. Bryan Hughes, Mineola — District 1.
• Sen. Kevin Sparks, Midland — District 31.
• Stacey Combest — public member, Senate appointment.
• Rep. Charles Cunningham, Humble — District 127.
• Rep. Donna Howard, Austin — District 48.
• Rep. Angelia Orr, Hillsboro — District 13.
• Rep. Matt Shaheen, Plano — District 66.
• Mont McClendon, Lubbock — public member, House appointment.

Roster: the commission’s own membership page. One caution: parts of the Sunset website still show the Senate public seat as vacant while other pages name Stacey Combest and carry a notice of her appointment; no appointment date is published, and no hometown is given beyond Elkins Lake. Legislative district numbers come from the commission’s own member links and the members’ House and Senate pages. Staff: Eric Beverly, executive director, who presents the process overview; Katie Durain, project manager for this review.