Texas Law Cuts Core Courses at Public Colleges

Most students picking a college don't give much thought to what's inside a general education requirement. You take the required courses, check the boxes, graduate. What happened at the Texas Capitol on July 28, 2026 is a reason to look more carefully — especially if a Texas public university is anywhere on your list.

At a hearing of the Texas Senate, university administrators detailed how they are implementing Senate Bill 37, a 2025 law that shifted authority over what courses count toward general education requirements from faculty to governor-appointed boards of regents. The hearing was the first formal update on implementation since the law took effect.¹

The University of Houston's numbers were the sharpest in the room.

The University of Houston's Core Curriculum Review

UH's Core Curriculum Working Group conducted an internal review of its general education courses for compliance with SB 37's new standards. Their draft recommendations, first reported in late July 2026, called for removing 101 courses from the list that counts toward the core curriculum requirement — roughly 40% of the university's current core offerings.²

Among the courses flagged for removal:

• Introduction to Global Climate Change
• Black Liberation Theology
• American Literature to 1865
• Introduction to Women's Studies
• Technology Entrepreneurship
• Applied Technical Statistics

Faculty members who testified warned that courses losing their "core" designation don't disappear from the catalog immediately — but without the core label, they stop attracting students who need to fulfill general education requirements. Enrollment drops. Then the courses get cut.³

These are draft recommendations, not final decisions. Nothing has been formally removed yet. But the scope of what's under review — 101 courses at a single university — gives a concrete preview of how deeply SB 37 is reaching into Texas public university curricula.

What Texas Senate Bill 37 Actually Does

SB 37 was introduced by Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton, who also served as its senate author. It was signed into law in 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025.¹

The law does three things:

1. Shifts curriculum authority. Faculty governance bodies — faculty senates — no longer have binding authority over what courses qualify as general education requirements. That power now rests with boards of regents, who are appointed by the governor.

2. Sets new standards. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has authority to define what counts as a foundational general education course and to enforce those definitions across all public institutions.

3. Requires regular review. Governing boards must periodically review and approve the undergraduate course requirements at their institutions, including the core curriculum.

A course losing "core" designation is not the same as a course being banned. Faculty can still teach it. Students can still take it. But it no longer counts toward graduation requirements — which, in practice, means most students won't take it and enrollment falls.

SB 37 is distinct from Texas Senate Bill 17, which eliminated DEI offices and programs starting in January 2024. SB 37 reaches further into everyday academic life, directly shaping which courses fulfill degree requirements for every undergraduate at a Texas public university.

UT-Austin and Other Campuses Are Changing Too

The University of Houston is not alone. The University of Texas at Austin removed the "US History Core" designation from several courses, meaning they no longer satisfy the university's American history general education requirement.²

Texas A&M and Texas Tech made earlier changes to syllabi and course policies ahead of the spring 2026 semester — changes detailed in our earlier coverage of Texas academic freedom.

The pattern across campuses suggests the July 28 hearing won't be the last time Texas universities are asked to account for what they've changed and what's still under review.

What This Means for Students Evaluating Texas Schools

If you're deciding between colleges, and a Texas public university is in the mix, a few practical questions are worth raising:

What will the core curriculum look like by the time you graduate?

If you enroll at UH as a freshman in fall 2026 or 2027, you'll be graduating in 2030 or 2031. The core curriculum you'd need to complete could look different from what's currently listed on the website. Courses listed as "core" today may not count by the time you're a junior.

Will the changes affect your major?

Major requirements are largely separate from general education requirements and less likely to be directly targeted by SB 37. A chemistry major, an engineering major, a business major — those department course requirements are different from the university-wide core. But if your major included electives that used to double-count as core courses, that flexibility may shrink.

How does this affect faculty?

Texas has seen professors leaving for other states due to concerns about academic freedom. Courses that lose their core designation often see enrollment drops, which affects whether departments can justify faculty positions. Over time, curriculum restrictions can affect the depth of faculty expertise at an institution.

101 — Courses UH's working group recommended removing from its core curriculum — approximately 40% of all core offerings^{Click2Houston / Hoodline, July 2026}

What Doesn't Change

If you're already enrolled at a Texas public university, your degree requirements are generally set by the catalog in effect when you enrolled. Changes to the core curriculum affect incoming students more directly than continuing students — though some ongoing requirements may still shift if your institution formally updates its core list.

When you're picking your courses as an incoming freshman, ask your academic advisor specifically: which courses currently hold core status, and are any of them under review? It's a question most advisors will appreciate rather than resent — and the answer may be different in your junior year than it was at orientation.

Four Steps for Students Considering Texas Public Colleges

1. Download the current core curriculum list from the university's website and save it. Screenshot it if you have to. Core lists are updated, and it's worth knowing what was there when you were making your decision.

2. Ask at campus visits whether any core courses are under review or have already lost their designation. Admissions staff should be able to connect you with someone who can answer.

3. Look at whether your intended major has alternative paths to satisfying graduation requirements if a course loses its core status.

4. Compare state versus private school options — private universities in Texas, including Rice and TCU, operate under different governance rules and are not subject to SB 37.

The July 28 hearing was not the end of this process. Texas universities are expected to continue submitting implementation updates to the legislature through the fall. Students who are planning to enroll in 2026-27 or 2027-28 should check back with their target school's registrar or dean of students office as those updates come in.

Footnotes

1. Texas Tribune. (2026, July 28). Increased scrutiny of Texas colleges detailed in hearing. texastribune.org. ↩ ↩²

2. Click2Houston / KHOU. (2026, July 22). University of Houston could remove nearly 40% of core curriculum courses under new Texas law. khou.com. Retrieved July 2026. ↩ ↩²

3. Chronicle of Higher Education. (2026, July). U. of Houston Is Planning Big Cuts to Its Core Curriculum. Faculty Aren't Happy. chronicle.com. ↩