November 3, 2025
Texas’s “Parental Rights” Amendment Will Cement Republicans’ Anti-Educator Agenda
By Nic Wong
The ballot proposal is the right’s latest move in the culture war on teachers and public schools, embedding parental primacy in the state constitution.
This November, Texans will vote on Proposition 15, a ballot initiative to add a parental rights amendment to the Texas Constitution.
The amendment’s language affirms that parents have the “fundamental right to exercise care, custody, and control” over their child and “to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.” In the broader context of family law, this amendment offers nothing new. More importantly, is the way the measure dovetails with a wave of controversial legislation this year shifting power away from educators and towards parents.
Avow Texas, a pro-choice group, has called Proposition 15 “unnecessary, vague, and dangerous,” and Progress Texas warns that this amendment could “weaponize the Constitution to propagate right-wing culture wars involving LGBTQ+ families, book bans, and what’s taught in public schools.”
