House Bill 3173 would strengthen fiscal transparency, mandate strategic planning, and enhance workforce productivity and community engagement for Local Workforce Development Boards—ultimately connecting more disconnected young Texans to meaningful careers. 

Opportunity Youth and Young Adults (OYYA), those young people ages 16-24 who are not in school and not employed, represent 13.1%1 of young Texans, or almost half a million, well above the national average of 10.9%.2 To put that figure in perspective, that’s roughly the population of McAllen, Round Rock, and Grand Prairie combined.  

These young people are also the future of our workforce and our economy—without a strong, active, and skilled workforce, employers will struggle to fill positions and maintain productivity.  Governor Abbott announced that expanding career training is an emergency item for this legislative session. By 2030, more than 60% of jobs in Texas will require some form of post-secondary education or training, but less than 40% of Texas students attain a degree or workforce training within six years of graduating high school.3 This skills gap threatens to leave even more young Texans behind.  

The cost of this disconnection is severe. Almost half of opportunity youth lack health insurance, and many are already parents—potentially passing economic hardship to the next generation. The ramifications of disconnection are also long lasting. By age 28, those who experienced prolonged disconnection from work and education earn less than $21,000 a year, while their peers make more than $37,000—a $16,000 difference in annual earnings.4 Previously disconnected adults at this annual income rate would qualify for public benefits, and without assistance, they would struggle to meet their basic needs. 

The good news is that there is an existing funding stream available for opportunity youth and people hard at work to assist young people in getting back on the path towards education or a career. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) will distribute approximately $80 million dollars in 2025 to the 28 Local Workforce Development Boards to assist OYYA. That’s significant, but we lack basic transparency about how these funds are used and what they achieve. 

Senate Bill 1143 and House Bill 3173 propose three simple but powerful changes: 

• First, track and report how workforce development funds are used for young adults. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. 

• Second, require local workforce boards to develop specific strategies for engaging opportunity youth, with clear performance measures. 

• Third, require LWDBs to be notified of large scale subsidized job creation, allowing board to coordinate with economic development stakeholders and ensure that they have prepared their local workforce.  LWDBs want to prepare young workers with the right skills and resources when employers bring jobs to Texas so that those jobs stay local and improve the community.  

These are simple policy changes that don’t create new bureaucracy but instead ensure smarter use of existing resources. Texas has always led the nation in job creation and economic growth. To maintain our competitive edge, we cannot afford to leave half a million young Texans on the sidelines.