In what he calls “the most hostile” legislative session in the last 18 years, Texas Senator Borris L. Miles (D-Houston) has filed legislation on public education, healthcare, policing, environmental justice and the preservation of Black history.
Miles warns that Republican-backed policies are gutting protections for communities of color and pushing Texas toward a future that does not include them.
“This is the most difficult session that I’ve been in. They [Republicans] are serving in an arrogant tone,” Miles told the Defender.
Miles believes lawmakers are pushing for policies that hurt urban communities of color, particularly Black Texans. These include school vouchers, the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and environmental deregulation.
“The MAGA [Make America Great Again] platform is definitely not intended to provide any type of benefits or any type of help or assistance to urban communities of color,” he said.
Public Education
Miles expressed concerns about public education legislation. He strongly opposes the school voucher system proposed through Senate Bill 2, which will allow families to use taxpayer dollars to fund a private school education.
“It’s not a school choice, it’s a private school choice,” he explained. “It is a system that’s going to benefit the elite and…skim off the first 3% of our premier students in Black communities…They’re trying to knock out all of the minority excellence that we’ve been able to succeed in the last two decades.”
Miles, a Sam Houston State University graduate in Criminal Justice and Criminal Science, also filed bills (SB 285 and SB 286) dealing with “money received for an open-enrollment charter school to support an out-of-state school” and “financial benefits” that a superintendent gets for the services they provide. Miles clarified that these bills pertain to Houston ISD.
Speaking on the discourse on DEI, Miles said the initiatives helped minority students attend predominantly white universities. He fears that the only persons accepted to these universities are Black athletes.
“Let’s face it, if you’re not a star athlete, most of these large universities in the state of Texas are not interested in having you at their campuses,” Miles said. “Now that the Texans and Republicans across the country have seen that it works and it helps produce Black and minority excellence, they want to get rid of it now…they have completely demonized DEI.”
Health care gaps
The senator said he secured $8 billion for indigent health care, a system providing free or low-cost medical care to individuals who cannot afford it, in Houston and Harris County to address the challenges faced by District 13 residents. This session, Miles’ bill puts another $2 billion on the table for “people of color who don’t necessarily have access to quality healthcare” that he expects will pass at the Capitol.
“I’ve been working hard to make sure that we try to balance the healthcare system and the education system and bring in equity and equality to both of those institutions,” he added.
Air quality and environmental racism
Environmental racism is another battlefront for Miles, who has been a vocal critic of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This session, he has filed “over a dozen bills” focused on air quality permitting and batch plant facilities, pushing Gov. Greg Abbott to include minority lawmakers in selecting a new TCEQ leader.
Miles argues the state has consistently permitted polluting facilities like concrete batch plants and industries in communities of color, thereby committing “environmental racism.”
“A Texas agency [TCEQ] that should be working for its constituents and their primary purpose is to keep us healthy and safe…It is not doing that,” he said. “Communities of color are having to carry the burden for all Texans.”
Accountability in policing
Police brutality bills and citizen review boards (SB 280) with subpoena power are yet another top agenda for Miles. However, his attempts have faced backlash since 2010, when he started pushing for law enforcement reforms.
“The law enforcement lobby here in Texas is very, very strong, but I will continue to file anti-police brutality bills so that people in the city of Houston and the state of Texas can feel safe when they encounter law enforcement,” said Miles, who is a former law enforcement officer.
His current legislation seeks to hold officers accountable by requiring the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to study and report on incidents of racial profiling (SB 2288).
Housing equity
Storms and power outages have revealed inequities in Texas’ housing infrastructure, especially in low-income senior housing. Miles said he would target tax credit developments that neglect essential safeguards like backup power generators and water pressure systems.
“These tax credits are given by the state of Texas, which can then be taken out into the open stock market and sold…it’s taxpayers money,” Miles explained. “It’s an incentive for people to build these facilities…when a storm comes, we lose electricity, some of those senior citizens are trapped in their facilities because they use walkers or they use scooters to get up and down on the elevator.”
Preservation of history
Despite foreseeing backlash, Miles along with District 15 Senator Molly Cook have also filed a bill (SB 283) to create the Texas African American Heritage Commission, “to identify, preserve, interpret and promote sites reflecting this state’s African American heritage.”
“As an African American legislator, as one of two Black senators in this state, I need to be moving forward expeditiously to make sure that we preserve our history so that our young children can know the fight and the struggle that people have to go through, even to let them go to one of these public schools in their existence in the state of Texas.”
