Session Overview

Arkansas’s 2025 legislative session reflected practical governance focused on children, families, and participation, all areas that Southerners consistently name as top priorities in EPU’s Survey of the South (2024). Lawmakers advanced policies to strengthen early learning, expand literacy support, and improve access to behavioral health professionals. At the same time, new restrictions on the citizen-led ballot initiative process raised concerns about access and voice. The overall record shows a state seeking balance between accountability and opportunity, making progress in some areas while narrowing participation in others.

Advancing Values

• Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation: SB 59 established universal free school breakfast, removing a basic barrier to learning and supporting family budgets across the state. In tandem, SB 206 tripled Arkansas’ Literacy Tutoring Grant from $500 to $1,500 to scale evidence-based supports for early reading. Together, these moves reflect values of investing in children and giving every student a fair shot to succeed.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: HB 1712 entered Arkansas into the Social Work Licensure Compact, making it easier for licensed social workers to practice across state lines. This is an especially practical step for rural and underserved communities that need more behavioral-health capacity and is aimed at access and affordability for families. By addressing provider shortages and continuity of care, lawmakers advanced stability, dignity, and belonging for families seeking support.

• Democracy & Civic Participation: HB 1925 required counties with cities over 15,000 residents to offer at least one early-voting location, improving geographic access to the ballot. This update reflects values of fairness and participation. This small but meaningful progress toward ensures that time or travel distance doesn’t determine whether a vote counts.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Public Safety: SB 380 authorized nitrogen-gas executions. Regardless of one’s stance on capital punishment, the method has drawn serious human-rights and constitutional concerns and adopting it risks inhumane outcomes and litigation, diverging from values of dignity and equal justice.

• Democracy & Civic Participation:  Arkansas also passed several laws (SB 210, SB 207, SB 102, and SB 208) that added new procedural hurdles for citizen-led ballot initiatives. These laws now require canvassers to read ballot titles aloud to signers and show identification before collecting signatures. Supporters described the measures as integrity safeguards; however, in practice they raise costs and logistical barriers for grassroots groups seeking to place issues before voters. Balancing integrity with accessibility would better reflect Southerners’ shared values of fairness, belonging, and voice in government.

Analysis & Takeaway

Arkansas’s 2025 session combined practical investment with procedural restraint. Universal school breakfasts, literacy expansion, and a strengthened social-work network demonstrate care for stability and family well-being, proving that progress can be both incremental and meaningful. Yet, the tightening of the ballot-initiative process and adoption of a controversial execution method highlight how easily access and dignity can be limited in the name of control.

Why This Is Important: Across the South, people want the fair opportunities for children and communities that feel connected and secure that Arkansans acted on this year.. Ensuring those same values of fairness and belonging extend to civic participation and justice systems will be essential for translating Arkansas’s steady gains into a more inclusive future.

Session Overview

Florida’s 2025 session reflected sharp contrasts. Lawmakers advanced bills on clean energy incentives which streamlined permitting and expanded affordability for households and businesses. At the same time, several high-profile efforts to raise teacher pay and improve salary structures were introduced and debated, but ultimately stalled before final passage, leaving one of the state’s most pressing education issues unresolved. As in much of the South, Floridians expressed through public polling (see Survey of the South, 2024) that they value fairness, opportunity, and connection. These principles appeared in some debates but not consistently in final outcomes. 

Advancing Values

• Education & Opportunity: SB 670 (Save Our Teachers Act) and HB 439/SB 136 (Fair Pay for Educators Act) sought to increase base salaries and modernize pay structures to retain teachers. While neither bill ultimately passed, their introduction and traction reflected lawmakers’ acknowledgement of the urgent need to address Florida’s teacher pay crisis. These efforts signal responsiveness to values of fairness and investment in the next generation, even if long-term solutions remain unrealized.

• Clean Energy & Environmental Stewardship: HB 683 modernized Florida’s construction and permitting framework by allowing local governments to use private providers and virtual inspections for certain building permits and requiring approval within five business days once documentation is submitted. While not limited to solar projects, these reforms are expected to streamline the permitting process for rooftop solar and energy-storage installations, helping reduce delays and costs for households and businesses. By improving efficiency in local permitting and enabling faster access to clean-energy options, the law reflects values of sustainability, affordability, and innovation.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Economic Security & Opportunity: HB 1145 expanded workforce education grants and strengthened the “money-back guarantee” program, allocating about $60 million for career and technical education and apprenticeships. While a step forward, the investment is modest compared to demand, and access remains uneven. Urban regions with multiple providers are more likely to benefit, while rural communities still face limited programs and transportation barriers. Without safeguards to ensure equitable distribution, this law risks deepening disparities rather than closing them. 

• Democracy & Civic Participation: HB 1409, a 2025 proposal to revise election laws (covering voter registration, vote-by-mail, and ballot handling), died in committee. Its failure was a missed opportunity to modernize and potentially expand access to the ballot. Meanwhile, restrictive laws passed in other years remain in place, limiting ballot drop boxes, imposing stricter ID requirements, and tightening rules for third-party voter registration groups. The absence of protective measures in 2025 to counterbalance these restrictions reinforces barriers to participation, especially for elderly, disabled, and minority voters. This gap leaves the state misaligned with values of fairness, inclusion, and representation. 

Analysis & Takeaway

Florida’s 2025 session underscored both the potential and the limits of incremental progress. Streamlined clean-energy permitting showed how practical, nonpartisan reforms can improve daily life and affordability. The broad but unrealized push for teacher-pay reform highlighted shared public values without delivering the results families hoped for. And while workforce initiatives expanded modestly, the absence of meaningful voting-access reform left participation gaps intact.

Why this is important: Florida continues to shape Southern and national policy trends. When the state invests in sustainability or recognizes the dignity of educators, it affirms values most Southerners share: fairness, connection, and opportunity. Yet by leaving voting restrictions untouched and falling short on education pay reform, lawmakers missed chances to turn those shared priorities into lasting progress. Strengthening inclusion and access alongside innovation will determine whether Florida’s momentum translates into a more stable and opportunity-rich future for all.

Session Overview

Georgia’s 2025 legislative session combined meaningful steps in education and behavioral health with stalled action in other key areas. Lawmakers strengthened early literacy supports, joined a compact to address shortages of school psychologists, improved enforcement of mental health parity, and enacted a new state child tax credit to help working families. At the same time, proposals to expand Medicaid and voting access did not advance, and new workforce development efforts remain aspirational without sustained funding. Environmental protections also saw little movement, reflecting uneven attention across policy areas. The result was a session marked by targeted progress but continued gaps in addressing widespread needs. Recent polling showed that education, healthcare, and the economy ranked among the top concerns for Georgia voters, with 65% of Georgians saying they wanted more state investment in K-12 education. 

Advancing Values

• Education & Opportunity: Georgia made progress on education through measures designed to expand opportunity and strengthen student support. Building on Georgia’s Early Literacy Act, HB 307 consolidated dyslexia screening requirements to ensure earlier identification and support for struggling readers. In addition, HB 81 added Georgia to the interstate compact for school psychologists, a step designed to address shortages and accelerate placement of qualified professionals in schools. Together, these bills reflect values of investment in the next generation, providing students with the tools and support they need to succeed. 

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Georgia also advanced behavioral health through HB 612, which created a Mental Health Parity Compliance Review Panel under the Behavioral Health Coordinating Council. The bill requires greater reporting and enforcement of suspected parity violations, ensuring that mental health treatment is covered on par with physical health. This measure builds on the state’s recent bipartisan mental health reform efforts and reflects values of community well-being and equitable access to care. 

• Economic Security & Opportunity: HB 136 established a new state child tax credit, providing up to $2500 per child under age 6 and increasing Georgia’s child and dependent care credit from 30% to 50% of the federal level. This direct tax relief supports working families, helping offset child care and early childhood expenses that often strain household budgets. By investing in young children and easing financial pressure on parents, the law embodies shared values of family stability, fairness, opportunity. 

Opportunities for Improvement

• Democracy & Civic Participation: Georgia lawmakers made minor administrative updates to absentee ballot processes in 2025 through SB 214, which allows on-request physical ballots and revises handling and reporting procedures. While these changes may streamline some aspects of election administration, they do not expand voter access and must be understood against the backdrop of SB 202, the state’s 2021 voting law that imposed significant restrictions on drop boxes, absentee applications, and assistance. Advocates warn that, taken together, Georgia’s approach continues to place burdens on voters who face mobility, transportation, or time constraints.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Although a Medicaid expansion proposal (SB 50) was introduced during the 2025 session, it was not enacted, leaving Georgia among the states that have yet to fully expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Georgia also has one of the nation’s highest uninsured rates, with more than 13% of residents lacking health coverage. This ongoing refusal to expand coverage stands in contrast to broad public support across the South for affordable healthcare access and undermines values of health and family stability.

• Economic Security & Opportunity: SB 193 would create an Adult Workforce High School Diploma Program within the Technical College System of Georgia, providing a pathway for adult learners to gain workforce skills. However, the measure requires sustained funding and legislative follow-through to become fully operational. Without such investment, this opportunity remains aspirational rather than a realized expansion of mobility and security.

Analysis & Takeaway

Georgia’s 2025 session illustrates how partial progress can deliver real benefits while leaving deeper inequities unresolved. Expanded literacy support, stronger mental-health enforcement, and the creation of a child tax credit demonstrate bipartisan responsiveness to the daily realities of families by advancing values of stability, fairness, and opportunity. Yet the refusal to expand Medicaid, continued barriers to voting, and underfunded workforce pathways expose how far the state remains from fully realizing values of fairness, participation, and opportunity.

Why This Is Important: When Georgia invests in children, families, and behavioral health, it strengthens the foundation of community well-being that Southerners consistently say they value most. But by leaving healthcare gaps and voting barriers in place, lawmakers risk reinforcing inequities that limit progress. The 2025 session showed both the promise of bipartisan action and the urgency of sustained commitment to fairness, participation, and shared prosperity.

Session Overview

Kentucky’s 2025 session advanced policies that touch directly on classrooms and community voice. Lawmakers enacted paid maternity leave for educators, updated teacher-prep and literacy standards, and adopted broad election-administration changes. At the same time, new student-retention rules and other election-process revisions raised concerns about fairness and access. The result is a session that paired meaningful family- and school-centered progress with choices that could create barriers if not matched by strong supports. 

Advancing Values

• Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation: SB 9, among other provisions, requires every school district to adopt a policy providing up to 30 days of paid maternity leave for teachers and school employees by July 1, 2030, with pay protections and related benefits. This directly supports educator retention and family stability, values Kentuckians consistently associate with thriving schools and strong communities. Additionally, HB 251 updates evaluation and support structures tied to educator preparation and early-grade literacy/math proficiency, aiming to strengthen instructional quality for young learners. While implementation will matter, the intent to better prepare educators and provide earlier help for students tracks with values of investment in the next generation.

• Democracy & Civic Participation: HB 684 established the Kentucky Elections Cybersecurity and Integrity Fund, creating a framework for federal and state grants to help counties upgrade election infrastructure and improve security systems. While answering heightened and often unfounded concerts about election integrity, the law ultimately channels those pressures into practical investments that modernize systems and protect voter data. This reflects values of transparency, fairness, and trust in the democratic process. 

Opportunities for Improvement

• Democracy & Civic Participation: The same omnibus election bill cited above, HB 684, also tightened or reshaped several procedures (e.g., precinct-officer numbers tied to consolidation plans, earlier write-in deadlines, and new handling/reporting rules). Another enacted measure, HB 455, made additional administrative changes. While some updates modernize processes, others can add friction or reduce flexibility, particularly in counties consolidating polling places, leaving mixed alignment with values of fairness and broad participation.

• Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation: HB 240 increased retention triggers in early grades by layering additional promotion bars. This is an approach research suggests can carry long-term costs for students unless paired with robust, funded interventions. A more values-aligned path centers intensive supports (tutoring, coaching, summer learning) before retention, so children aren’t penalized for gaps tied to poverty or uneven access.

Analysis & Takeaway

Kentucky demonstrated that bipartisan progress is possible on practical issues that matter to families—such as ensuring teachers can take maternity leave without losing pay and strengthening preparation for early-grade instruction. These steps reflect shared Southern values of stability, opportunity, and investment in the next generation. Yet the reliance on stricter retention policies without sufficient student supports, along with election changes that may complicate participation, highlight the importance of implementation.

Why This Is Important: When Kentucky invests in its educators and classrooms, it builds a stronger foundation for student success and community well-being. Ensuring that election laws remain accessible and that academic standards are matched with resources will be critical for translating legislative intent into fairness, inclusion, and long-term opportunity.

Session Overview

Louisiana’s 2025 legislative session reflected progress on core community priorities, such as education, healthcare, and housing, alongside inaction on longer-term challenges. Lawmakers approved pay raises for teachers and school staff, increased Medicaid reimbursement rates to strengthen provider retention, and expanded storm-resilience programs for homeowners. Yet proposals to curb industrial pollution stalled, new sentencing rules narrowed opportunities for rehabilitation, and infrastructure investments focused almost entirely on roads while leaving public transit and broadband behind. The session advanced stability and safety but left deeper values of fairness, justice, and opportunity unmet.

Advancing Values

• Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation: HB 466 provided teacher and staff pay raises ($2,000 and $1,000 respectively) using pension savings, advancing fairness for educators and investment in future generations. While this marked meaningful progress, salaries remain below the Southern regional average, underscoring the need for sustained investment to ensure long-term competitiveness and stability in Louisiana’s education workforce. 

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being:  HB 1 increased Medicaid physician reimbursement rates to 85 percent of Medicare Region 99 levels—among the largest single-year jumps in recent years—helping keep doctors in practice and improving access to care. SB 96 further required Medicaid behavioral-health reimbursement parity with Medicare, ensuring that mental health and substance-use treatment are covered on equal footing. Together, these measures reflect values of stability and dignity by strengthening continuity of care for low-income families.

• Infrastructure, Housing, & Safe Communities: HB 318 (et new standards for manufactured and modular homes in flood-prone areas, aligning with FEMA guidance. Combined with HB 145, HB 441, and HB 329 (the Fortify Homes Program), these measures expanded retrofitting assistance and reinforced the value of safety and resilience for families across a storm-prone state.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Clean Energy & Environmental Stewardship: Lawmakers took no action to strengthen industrial emissions controls or fund statewide climate resilience planning, leaving communities in regions like Cancer Alley exposed to persistent environmental health risks. This omission represents a missed opportunity to align policy with the values of justice and protection for vulnerable residents.. 

• Public Safety: HB 208 modified parole eligibility and sentencing guidelines, but the most significant action was the passage of HB 675, which tightens post-conviction appeals and abandonment rules. These measures emphasize punishment over rehabilitation and limit second-chance opportunities. Lawmakers did not advance legislation promoting diversion, rehabilitation, or juvenile justice reform, leaving gaps in the values of fairness and opportunity for redemption. 

• Infrastructure, Housing, & Safe Communities: HB 2 (the Capital Outlay Budget) continued prioritizing highways and large construction projects while leaving public transit and broadband expansion underfunded. SB 236 empowering expedited redevelopment of blighted properties, drew concern from local advocates about potential displacement without clear safeguards for long-term residents.  

Analysis & Takeaway

Louisiana’s 2025 session showed how pragmatic investments can deliver short-term wins even as deeper systemic issues persist. Teacher raises, higher Medicaid reimbursements, and stronger housing resilience efforts reflect shared values of fairness, stability, and family protection. Yet the absence of progress on environmental justice, rehabilitative public safety, and equitable infrastructure highlights the continuing need for policies that bridge immediate improvements with lasting opportunity.

Why This Is Important: Across the South, residents consistently rank fairness, opportunity, and dignity among their highest priorities (Survey of the South 2024). Louisiana’s record demonstrates progress under pressure but hesitance to pursue long-term structural change—an imbalance that will shape how communities experience recovery, resilience, and representation in years to come.

Session Overview

Mississippi’s 2025 legislative session reflected both responsiveness and restraint. Lawmakers considered proposals to expand career and technical education, debated early voting, and introduced measures on disaster resilience and healthcare access. Yet few of these efforts translated into enacted policy, leaving much of the session defined by near-misses. Against a backdrop of rising insurance costs and ongoing health disparities, as Mississippi’s uninsured rate remains among the highest in the nation, the session delivered moments of recognition but limited concrete change.

Advancing Values

While Mississippi’s 2025 session reflected growing dialogue around issues such as workforce development and civic participation, few measures translating those discussions into major policy change ultimately became law. Lawmakers introduced thoughtful proposals across areas like healthcare, education, and community resilience, signaling awareness of public priorities and shared values of fairness, opportunity, and stability. Yet many of these efforts fell short of final passage, suggesting that while momentum for progress is building, continued commitment will be needed to translate those values into lasting, on-the-ground impact.

• Economic Security & Opportunity: Lawmakers took a step toward expanding workforce mobility with HB 1556, which passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill would have created tuition-free community college for students pursuing career and technical education pathways in high-demand fields. While the Senate failed to act on it, the strong House passage reflects broad recognition that equitable access to workforce training is key to economic security and upward mobility.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Democracy & Civic Participation: The Senate Passed SB 2654 (In-Person Early Voting Act), which would have established a 15-day early voting period with extended hours to give working people more opportunities to cast their ballots. However, legislative leaders chose not to send the bill to the governor on the final day of session, leaving Mississippi among the few states without an early voting period. This inaction represents a missed opportunity to expand civic participation and align with values of fairness and inclusion. 

• Infrastructure, Housing, & Safe Communities: Mississippi also failed to advance HB 1534 (Make Mississippi Resilient and Strong Act), which would have created a Windstorm Mitigation Association and grant program to help homeowners strengthen their properties against severe weather. In a state facing soaring insurance premiums and heightened climate risks, the death of this bill in committee left communities without tools that could enhance resilience and stability. 

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Multiple measures aimed at expanding healthcare access—including HB 125, which would have directed the state to pursue federal waivers for Medicaid expansion, and HB 546, which sought to negotiate coverage expansions—died in committee. Mississippi remains one of the last Southern states without Medicaid expansion, leaving hundreds of thousands without affordable coverage and perpetuating disparities in maternal health and hospital access.

Analysis & Takeaway

Mississippi’s 2025 session illustrates the gap between recognition and action. By debating workforce pathways and early voting, lawmakers showed awareness of public demand for opportunity and participation. But leaving those efforts incomplete meant that values like fairness, resilience, and health access remained unmet in practice. These missed opportunities matter because they directly affect daily life, from the stability of families facing hospital closures to the dignity of communities shut out of the ballot box.

Why this is important: Policy choices in Mississippi highlight the stakes of aligning governance with values Southerners consistently share: fairness, resilience, and family stability. Turning near-misses into action would transform symbolic recognition into lasting change that strengthens both communities and trust in institutions across the state.

Session Overview

North Carolina’s 2025 session paired tangible gains for family stability and community resilience with setbacks on transparency and clean energy. Lawmakers strengthened Medicaid access and invested in disaster recovery after Hurricane Helene and wildfires, and they made it easier for licensed workers to get to work when they move across state lines. At the same time, the legislature weakened an interim climate benchmark, limited nonprofit donor transparency, and broadened where guns can be carried at private schools, choices that cut against widely shared values of accountability, sustainability, and safe learning environments.

Advancing Values

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: North Carolina made meaningful progress in healthcare access and family well-being through HB 546, which modernized the state’s Medicaid program. The bill extended postpartum coverage to twelve months, expanded telehealth access, and improved continuity of care for people leaving incarceration. Together, these reforms advance values of health access and dignity by ensuring families and vulnerable populations can access consistent, affordable care.

• Infrastructure, Housing, & Safe Communities: Lawmakers also advanced resilience in infrastructure and housing by enacting two major disaster recovery packages. HB 47 and HB 1012, known collectively as the Disaster Recovery Acts of 2025, delivered targeted funding and regulatory flexibility to help communities rebuild after Hurricane Helene and subsequent wildfires. These measures supported local infrastructure, housing repair, and crop recovery programs, reflecting values of resilience and protection for families living in high-risk areas.

• Economic Opportunity: HB 763 supported economic opportunity by recognizing occupational licenses issued by other states, reducing red tape and allowing qualified professionals to get to work more quickly after moving to North Carolina. This measure aligns with values of mobility, fairness, and opportunity, ensuring that workers and their families can more easily contribute to local economies.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Clean Energy & Environmental Stewardship: Lawmakers passed SB 266, the “Power Bill Reduction Act.” While framed as a cost-saving measure, the law repealed the state’s 2030 interim carbon-reduction milestone and authorized cost recovery for new baseload plants like gas and nuclear. Critics argue this undermines progress toward renewable energy goals and risks shifting costs to families, leaving the state out of step with values of sustainability and affordability. A poll found that 74% of North Carolinians say it’s important to increase clean and renewable energy use, and 63% say elected officials should lead a transition away from fossil fuels. 

• Democracy & Civic Participation: The legislature enacted SB 416, the Personal Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits state agencies from collecting or disclosing information about donors to most nonprofits. Proponents describe the law as a safeguard for free speech, but advocates warn it reduces transparency into the influence of wealthy donors and special interests. By limiting accountability, the law diverges from values of fairness and open representation.

• Public Safety: Public safety also saw controversial action with HB 193, which permits certain employees and volunteers at nonpublic schools to carry firearms on school grounds if authorized and trained. Supporters framed this as an added layer of security, but many educators and safety experts argue it risks creating environments that feel less safe for students and staff. This emphasis on armed presence over prevention and support runs counter to values of safe, supportive learning environments.

Analysis & Takeaway

North Carolina’s 2025 session demonstrated a mix of progress and setbacks. Laws modernizing Medicaid, funding disaster recovery, and easing occupational licensing showed lawmakers responding to real needs with practical solutions that advance values of health, resilience, and opportunity. At the same time, repealing a key climate benchmark, reducing nonprofit transparency, and expanding firearms in schools reflect choices that move away from values of sustainability, accountability, and safe learning environments.

Why This Is Important: Southerners consistently value fairness, opportunity, and secure communities. When North Carolina invests in healthcare, resilience, and mobility, it strengthens the foundations of family stability and local economies. But when it undercuts climate goals, transparency, and safety, it risks leaving families more vulnerable. The state’s 2025 record underscores both the promise of bipartisan, values-driven reforms and the need for bolder alignment with shared Southern priorities of fairness, justice, and accountability.

Session Overview

South Carolina’s 2025 legislative session delivered notable progress on education, transparency, and healthcare access, reflecting responsiveness to the everyday needs of families and communities. Lawmakers ensured that more children have access to meals at school, recognized non-teaching experience in educator pay, expanded transparency in local school board decision-making, and strengthened patient safety and behavioral health access. At the same time, major energy legislation raised concerns about affordability and climate resilience, and the legislature failed to advance significant solutions to the state’s growing housing affordability crisis. The result is a session that combined meaningful steps toward stability with missed opportunities to address long-term challenges.

Advancing Values

• Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation: South Carolina enacted universal school-meal access for students in poverty through S 425, a concrete step that supports learning, attendance, and family budgets. Lawmakers also improved educator compensation through S 78 by letting districts count relevant non-teaching work toward pay steps, helping retain mid-career talent. Together, these moves reflect shared values of investing in children and sustaining a strong, experienced teacher corps. 

• Democracy & Civic Participation: To strengthen public participation in school governance, South Carolina now requires school boards to livestream or post recordings of their meetings with the passage of S 77. That transparency makes it easier for working families to follow decisions that shape their children’s schools and advances voice and accountability. 

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: H 4067 shored up access to emergency care by requiring a physician to be physically present in hospital emergency departments when patients are there, a patient-safety standard that’s especially important for rural communities. South Carolina also enacted H 3752 and joined the Social Work Interstate Compact to ease multistate practice, expanding the behavioral-health workforce families rely on. Finally, lawmakers removed a barrier that had made some Medicaid/Medicare patients’ durable medical equipment more expensive, broadening the sales-tax exemption to all licensed providers with the passage of H 3800. These measures collectively reflect values of dignity, affordability, and timely care.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Clean Energy & Environmental Stewardship: The broad “Energy Security” package (H 3309) resets utility planning and procurement and allows new cost-recovery tools. Advocates caution it could lock in more fossil generation and higher bills if not paired with strong consumer protections, efficiency, and competitive clean-energy procurement at scale. The legislature can still align this framework with values of affordability and resilience through implementation, such as rulemaking and oversight that prioritize least-cost, low-risk options for ratepayers. 

• Infrastructure, Housing & Safe Communities: A comprehensive “Equitable Development and Affordable Housing Act” (H 3750, introduced) proposed integrating affordable units and contributions into economic-development deals, but it did not advance this session. With housing costs rising, revisiting tools like H 3750 alongside budget-level investments would center stability and dignity for families across the state.

Analysis & Takeway

South Carolina’s 2025 session demonstrated how pragmatic reforms can directly improve daily life: meals for students, recognition of teacher experience, livestreamed board meetings, and better access to healthcare all reflect values of fairness, stability, and accountability. Yet the state also set long-term trajectories that risk diverging from those values: energy reforms that could increase household costs and fossil dependence, and the absence of meaningful housing affordability measures. These gaps highlight the limits of incremental progress in the face of structural challenges.

Why This Is Important: Southerners consistently value opportunity, fairness, and stability. By feeding children, valuing educators, expanding transparency, and strengthening healthcare access, South Carolina showed what responsive, values-driven policymaking can look like. But without bold action on affordable housing and a stronger clean-energy path, families remain vulnerable to rising costs and inequities. The state’s choices in 2025 underscore the need to build on practical wins while tackling the deeper affordability and sustainability issues shaping South Carolina’s future.

Session Overview

Tennessee’s 2025 record mixed some concrete steps for families and infrastructure with unresolved gaps in health coverage and participation. Lawmakers created a new, recurring revenue stream for highways, broadened paid-leave benefits for certain state employees, and modestly eased the process to restore voting rights after a felony. At the same time, the state did not take up Medicaid expansion and pursued a large school-voucher program whose opportunity and fiscal impacts remain contested.

Advancing Values

• Democracy & Civic Participation: The legislature approved a rights-restoration measure (SB 407/HB 445) that makes it possible to regain voting rights without first restoring gun rights. This is an administrative fix advocates had sought for years and reduces a procedural barrier that better aligns with values of voice and second chances.

• • Infrastructure, Housing & Safe Communities: Lawmakers dedicated a recurring revenue stream for the Highway Fund by redirecting sales tax on new and used tires with the passage of HB 969/SB 144. With collections capped at $80 million in FY 2025-26 and estimated at ~$95.7 million thereafter, this provides a predictable base for roads and bridges, supporting safety, mobility, and local economies.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: The General Assembly expanded certain paid family-leave benefits for state employees, including aligning special-school teachers with public-school policies; allowing adoptive parents’ leave to begin at placement; and adding end-of-life caregiving to the covered reasons (HB 676/SB 705; SB 314/HB 1150; SB 322/HB 915). These updates support family stability and workforce retention.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Tennessee did not adopt Medicaid expansion in 2025. The state remains among the non-expansion states, leaving many low-income adults in the coverage gap, continuing an ongoing mismatch with values of health access and family security.

• Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation: In a January extraordinary session, Tennessee enacted the Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS) program (HB 1409/SB 1431). While framed as expanding choice, independent analyses flag open questions on fairness, transparency, and fiscal impact on public schools.

• Public Safety: The legislature created a new $12.50 assessment in every misdemeanor and felony cost bill to fund district attorneys’ offices (HB 547/SB 547). Without offsetting relief, added court costs can deepen financial strain for low-income residents. This is an area where more balance between accountability and affordability would better reflect fairness.

Analysis & Takeaway

Tennessee’s 2025 session shows how targeted changes—like a stable highway-fund revenue stream and expanded paid-leave eligibility—can meaningfully support families and local economies. Limited but real movement on rights restoration also nudges participation in the right direction. Yet the state’s continued non-expansion of Medicaid keeps many working families uninsured, and the new universal voucher program raises unresolved questions about the health of neighborhood public schools.

Why This Is Important: Centering fairness, participation, and stability would mean pairing infrastructure investments with broader access to healthcare, ensuring voting procedures are not only orderly but inclusive, and implementing the EFS law with guardrails that protect students and public systems alike. Those choices would translate shared values into durable gains for communities statewide.

Session Overview

Texas entered the 2025 session facing continued debates over democracy, healthcare access, and public safety, alongside the state’s ongoing refusal to expand Medicaid. Lawmakers advanced incremental steps in areas like rural healthcare, workforce training, and voting access, but also passed measures that restrict civic participation and missed opportunities to act boldly on environmental justice. The result is a mixed record: progress on stability and access in some areas, paired with policies that diverge from Southerners’ values of fairness, representation, and resilience.

Advancing Values

• Democracy & Civic Participation: SB 2753 expanded early voting by eliminating the four-day gap before Election Day and allowing weekend and holiday voting. Eliminating this gap expands opportunities for people to cast their ballots, advancing fairness and ballot access. Southerners overwhelmingly believe voting should be accessible and convenient, with 82% agreeing that every eligible voter should be able to cast a ballot without unnecessary barriers.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: HB 18 provided new programs and funding for healthcare delivery in rural counties, supporting community well-being and fairness in access to care. The bill focused on stabilizing rural hospitals and expanding access to care, ensuring access to healthcare regardless of location.

• Economic Security & Opportunity: HB 2545 created a grant program for rural workforce training under the Texas Workforce Commission, advancing values of opportunity and economic mobility. Providing grants for job-specific training is a policy that aligns with goals of economic mobility and creating opportunities for underserved populations.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Democracy & Civic Participation: While SB 2753 expanded early voting, other election law changes approved tighter restrictions on curbside voting and modified mail-voting procedures that may burden voters who face physical or transportation barriers. HB 521 adds documentation and attestation requirements for curbside voters. These trade-offs mean the session contained both steps forward and rules that could undercut inclusion.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Texas again declined to expand Medicaid, leaving over one million residents in the coverage gap. This ongoing refusal diverges from broad public support across the South for affordable care and undermines values of family stability and health access. 

• Public Safety: Texas lawmakers pursued a tougher sentencing approach, as exemplified by the passage of bills that increased mandatory minimums for certain crimes and limited eligibility for parole and community supervision. While the legislature did enact stricter bail reforms, such as SB 9, these measures were not paired with robust investments in diversion, rehabilitation, or juvenile justice reforms. This focus on punishment over second chances leaves significant gaps in addressing the root causes of crime and falls short of aligning with equitable values of fairness and redemption. 

Analysis & Takeaway

Texas’s 2025 session revealed how selective progress can coexist with entrenched inequities. Expanding early voting, supporting rural hospitals, and funding workforce training reflected values of fairness, stability, and opportunity, showing that lawmakers can act when access and community well-being are at stake. Yet restrictive voting measures, continued refusal to expand Medicaid, and punitive justice policies highlight gaps in representation, health access, and redemption.

Why This Is Important: Texas is the South’s largest state, and its choices ripple far beyond its borders. When it strengthens rural healthcare or expands ballot access, it affirms Southerners’ shared values of fairness and opportunity. But when it refuses to close the Medicaid coverage gap or doubles down on punitive justice, it reinforces inequities that leave families and communities more vulnerable. The mixed record of the 2025 session underscores the urgent need for policies that move past incremental steps and fully align with values of fairness, resilience, and justice.

Session Overview

Virginia’s 2025 session produced a mix of concrete advances on election transparency and school-based student health, plus several maternal- and family-health items, alongside high-profile vetoes on minimum wage and paid family leave and a number of clean-energy measures. Taken as a whole, there were real steps toward access and accountability, but big gaps remain on economic security and long-term energy transition.

Advancing Values

• Democracy & Civic Participation: Lawmakers tightened campaign-finance ethics and modestly improved election administration. A new ban on the personal use of campaign funds (HB 2165) strengthens accountability, while changes to provisional-ballot reporting (SB 1044) and a shorter close of registration window (HB 1735) increase clarity and usability of the process, which are moves consistent with fairness and participation.

• Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation: HB 1945 authorizes divisions to offer school-based telehealth and mental-health tele-therapy with parental consent, giving students easier access to care during the school day—an investment in stability and learning.

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: HB 1614 directs the Medicaid agency to add postpartum doula care via State Plan amendments, expanding support during a critical period for mothers and infants. Separately, HB 2055 requires schools to provide suicide-prevention materials, including secure gun storage guidance, when a student is at imminent risk, reinforcing safety and dignity for families.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Economic Security & Opportunity: The Governor vetoed HB 1928, which would have raised the minimum wage beyond the 2025 baseline, and HB 2531, which would have created a paid family & medical leave insurance program. Both measures passed the General Assembly but were blocked at final action, leaving many working families without stronger wage floors or job-protected paid leave.

• Clean Energy & Environmental Stewardship: Several grid and clean-energy bills that cleared the legislature were ultimately vetoed, including SB 1040 (which would have adjusted renewable portfolio standards) and SB 1394 (which would have set storage targets and provided local model ordinances for renewable siting). These measures could have advanced planning and reliability in Virginia’s energy transition. Their vetoes paused momentum on affordability and resilience, leaving the state short of fully aligning with values of sustainability and community protection.

Analysis & Takeaway

Virginia’s 2025 session reflected both responsiveness and restraint. Lawmakers advanced meaningful steps on transparency and accountability by banning personal use of campaign funds and improving election reporting, aligning with Southerners’ values of fairness and trust in the democratic process. Expanding access to school-based telehealth and mental health services, along with postpartum doula care, also matters because these measures directly strengthen family stability and ensure timely care for children and parents.

At the same time, the governor’s vetoes of minimum wage increases, paid family leave, and clean-energy planning bills reveal how some of the most urgent needs for working families and communities remain unmet. These decisions stalled progress on values that Virginians consistently prioritize, including economic security, dignity for workers, and resilience in the face of climate and energy challenges.

Why This Is Important: Virginia’s choices highlight both the potential and the limits of bipartisan progress. Lawmakers’ action on accountability and health supports demonstrates how pragmatic policies meet families where they are. Conversely, leaving economic security and clean-energy priorities unmet leaves families vulnerable to rising costs and climate risks. To fully align with Southerners’ values of fairness, opportunity, and resilience, Virginia will need to build on its incremental wins with bolder, opportunity-driven solutions that create lasting stability across the Commonwealth.

Session Overview

West Virginia’s 2025 legislative session delivered several tangible wins on education governance, small-business flexibility, and voter access, reflecting steady, pragmatic progress rather than sweeping change. Lawmakers simplified voting for residents who relocate, strengthened school board training and graduation standards, and made it easier for families to launch home-based businesses. These actions align with shared values of stability, accountability, and opportunity. However, efforts to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage, improve telehealth access, and modernize absentee voting procedures stalled, signaling that while the state continues to move forward in some areas, key gaps remain in ensuring equitable access to care and civic participation.

Advancing Values

• Democracy & Civic Participation: HB 2709 lets a voter who moved vote in their new precinct without having to cast a provisional ballot. That small but meaningful fix reduces friction for working families and students and advances values of inclusion and voice. 

• • Education & Opportunity for the Next Generation. HB 2411 updates graduation requirements and the state’s duties on academic standards, part of ongoing work to keep expectations coherent and transparent. Paired with HB 2513, which strengthens training requirements for county board of education members, these moves aim to improve local governance and instructional quality by investing in students and the systems that serve them.

• Economic Security & Opportunity: HB 2451 makes it easier to establish home-based businesses, reducing red tape for micro-entrepreneurs and caregivers balancing work and family. That flexibility supports mobility and household stability.

Opportunities for Improvement

• Healthcare Access & Family Well-Being: Lawmakers introduced significant maternal-health proposals (SB 160 to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage and SB 40 to require Medicaid/Public Employees Insurance Agency doula coverage) but neither advanced to passage this session. Converting these into law would more fully align with values of dignity, health access, and family stability. The Senate considered measures to broaden access via telemedicine—e.g., SB 167 allowing care across state lines, and SB 909 on Medicaid reimbursement for certain mental-health procedures—yet these remained in committee. With long travel times in rural counties, finishing this work would advance affordability and timely access.
• Democracy & Civic Participation: While HB 2709 removed one administrative barrier, West Virginia still maintains excuse-only absentee voting and other limits. Modernizing options (e.g., broader absentee eligibility) would better reflect values of fairness and participation, particularly for elderly and rural voters.

Analysis & Takeaway

West Virginia’s 2025 session produced practical progress on several fronts that touch everyday life. By simplifying voting for residents who have moved, modernizing graduation standards, improving school board training, and reducing barriers for home-based businesses, lawmakers acted in ways that promote stability, inclusion, and opportunity. These measures reflect a responsiveness to values Southerners consistently express, including having a voice in decision-making, investment in children, and support for working families. Policy gaps remain. The failure to advance postpartum Medicaid and doula-coverage proposals leaves maternal-health disparities unaddressed, while stalled telehealth bills limit options for rural residents seeking care close to home. Likewise, the continued absence of no-excuse absentee voting and broader ballot access leaves civic participation uneven across communities.

Why This Is Important: West Virginia’s incremental gains show how small, targeted actions can build a foundation for greater fairness and opportunity. The next step is turning that same pragmatism toward healthcare and participation, ensuring that every family, regardless of geography or circumstance, can access care, cast a ballot, and thrive in a state rooted in fairness, stability, and shared progress.

Cross-State Advances

Across the South, 2025 legislative sessions reflected responsiveness to public concerns about fairness, opportunity, and stability, though often through modest steps rather than transformative change.

Education remained the strongest area of regional progress. States including Louisiana, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia invested in teacher pay, early literacy, and educator support systems, demonstrating shared commitment to preparing the next generation for success. 

Infrastructure and resilience also saw momentum, as several legislatures, like Louisiana’s Fortify Homes Program to South Carolina’s Disaster Resilience Fund, prioritized safety and stability in the face of climate and economic pressures.

On healthcare, a few states acted to improve access and reimbursement, most notably South Carolina and Louisiana, which increased Medicaid and maternal-health funding to sustain providers and protect families. Meanwhile, workforce development and technical training remained bipartisan bright spots, with states such as Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas strengthening pipelines between education and employment.

Opportunities Across the South

Despite these gains, significant gaps remain between Southerners’ values and the policies that shape their daily lives.

Medicaid expansion continues to divide the region: Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee again declined to extend coverage, leaving millions in the coverage gap and worsening health disparities. Civic participation also remains constrained, with new voting restrictions passed or maintained in states like Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, even as others made limited administrative improvements.

Environmental justice, housing affordability, and criminal justice reform remain the South’s widest opportunity gaps. Most legislatures avoided major action on curbing industrial pollution, expanding affordable housing, or advancing rehabilitation-centered justice reforms, issues where public support for fairness and safety far outpaces policy response.

Priority Area Scan

Across the South, 2025 brought measurable progress in education, healthcare, and workforce opportunity but uneven follow-through elsewhere. Many states raised teacher pay, expanded literacy and mental-health programs, and invested in resilience projects. Yet Medicaid expansion remains stalled, voting access continues to face new limits, and affordable housing, broadband, and clean-energy efforts lag behind public demand. Southern legislatures addressed immediate needs, but lasting alignment with values of fairness, stability, and shared opportunity remains unfinished.

Looking Ahead to 2026

This report is also a guide for where our work needs to go next. One lesson from 2025 is clear: when the agenda is too broad, opportunities for impact are spread thin. In 2026, narrow its focus to go deeper in the areas where alignment with Southerners’ values is most urgent and achievable. The coming year will bring renewed debates over voting rights, mid-decade redistricting, and representation—with congressional balance at stake—making these issues especially critical to the South and this country’s future.

This means:

• Focusing on fewer priorities with greater depth.
• Building stronger narratives around where values and policy meet.
• Highlighting opportunities where community voice can shape outcomes.

Our goal for 2026 is to ensure that it becomes increasingly more difficult for state legislatures to ignore the clear values Southerners hold and to ensure that those values of fairness, stability, and shared opportunity are reflected in policy and practice across the region.

Why It Matters

Across the South, people consistently express a desire for fairness, opportunity, dignity, safety and a voice in government. These values are not abstract. They reflect the everyday priorities of families striving for stability, educators preparing the next generation, workers building local economies, and communities advocating for safe and healthy environments. 

The 2025 legislative sessions revealed a mixed picture. Some states advanced progress on core values like economic security, education, and infrastructure. Others moved in the opposite direction, enacting policies that undermine fair representation, healthcare access, and community well-being. 

This report is meant as both a reflection and a resource. We intend for it to serve as a guide to see where Southern legislatures are listening to their people and where more work remains. It’s a reminder that the values expressed by Southerners themselves must remain the guiding light on the path forward. 

As we look ahead to 2026, we don’t want this analysis to be simply a record of what happened. We want it to be an invitation to lawmakers, advocates, and communities to ask whether the policies being passed truly reflect the South we are working to build, rooted in fairness, justice, and opportunity for all.