Lawmakers lost many opportunities to help build a better Texas for our children.

Lawmakers lost countless opportunities to help build a better Texas for our kids.

When the 85th session of the Texas Legislature convened in January, back when bare-limbed trees on the Capitol grounds belied new hopes for a fruitful spring, we envisioned a “year of the child” in Austin. For any lawmaker eager to invest in the state they’ve sworn to serve, there were opportunities abounding to help build a brighter future for today’s young Texans, for tomorrow’s teachers, doctors, scientists and engineers.

Our system of public school finance was broken and desperately needed overhaul. Our most vulnerable children were at risk of abuse, neglect and worse in the state’s child welfare maze. Our youngest needed a more ambitious pre-K program, as Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledged. Children who needed special education programs in our public schools had been arbitrarily denied, as the Chronicle explored in an awardwinning series last year. There were health needs, parenting needs.

Nearly six months later, the rolling carpet of lush, green grass and the leafy trees around the pinkdomed Capitol belie what actually has happened. We had a year of the child, all right, but too often the “children” were wearing business suits and cavorting on the floor of the House and Senate. The real needs of Texas children got lost in the legislative playpen.

The child-in-chief this legislative session has been, of course, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Fixated on a bill crafted to embarrass transgender Texans, a bill that — if it passes — will surely wreak North Carolinastyle economic havoc on the state, Patrick is threatening to force a special session unless the House passes versions of the so-called “bathroom bill,” as well as a property tax bill.

Although House Speaker Joe Straus has labeled the bathroom bill “manufactured and unneccessary,” a gaggle of “Our Gang” auditioners calling itself the Freedom Caucus has aided and abetted the lieutenant governor. The Freedom Caucus, a dozen or so members a Dallas Republican labeled “bloodthirsty ideologues,” sabotaged the “safety net” bill, thereby forcing the closure of more than two dozen state agencies under sunset review. The governor may be forced to call a special session to save the agencies and to address the bathroom bill, which he favors. Republican House members, twitchy as Texas gray squirrels about being “primaried” by “bloodthirsty ideologues” in waiting, would no doubt pass it.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are still haggling over a state budget, the only task they’re constitutionally obligated to complete. House members are willing to spend a bit of money from the rainy day fund to resolve a serious budget shortfall, while Patrick prefers accounting sleights of hand. (Straus called the Patrick approach “cooking the books.”) School finance is still in limbo, Abbott’s pre-K plan has suffered legislative disdain and Patrick is still pushing to use already-scarce public money for private schools.

Fortunately, lawmakers have addressed the child welfare crisis, and schools will have to pay more attention to kids with special-ed needs, but too many child-related issues remain unresolved. Although “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” to quote the great Yogi, it appears that too many “children” got caught up in their own games to make 2017 a hopeful and productive year of the child.