In a state whose GOP leaders are still fighting to criminalize homosexuality and flirting with abolishing Medicaid, a leader with a great deal of skill, commitment, and persistence is often the only hope for even remotely progressive legislation.

Texas has such a leader in Democratic state Rep. Garnet Coleman, a DLCC Board of Directors member, who capped off a multi-year fight with two critically important legislative victories this session: a new suicide-prevention law and a law to dramatically increase access to health care in rural areas.

SB 984, the rural health care bill, solves a problem that has been vexing hospitals in rural communities for decades: how to ensure there are enough doctors. Enrique Rangel of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal explains the solution:

Coleman, who is considered one of the leading health care experts in the Legislature, said the legislation he and Duncan worked on is a milestone.

“This is a major shift in state policy,” Coleman said. “Doctors will have the choice between hanging up their own shingle, or, working directly for a hospital.”

Jeff Barnhart, CEO of Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton, said he is just as happy that after years in the works, Duncan and Coleman finally succeeded.

“In the future, when we need a doctor, this will make it easier for us to recruit and hire the doctor or doctors we need,” Barnhart said.

Dr. Bruce Malone of Austin, who today becomes president of TMA — which in previous sessions opposed similar proposals Duncan and Coleman filed — said the 45,000-member organization supported the bill this year because it recognizes that rural hospitals “have special needs.”

Under current law, doctors shoulder the financial risk themselves if they choose to practice in under-served areas. For younger doctors carrying potentially hundreds of thousands in medical school debt, that risk is often simply too heavy.

Another Coleman victory this session was the passage of Asher’s Law (HB 1386), which will provide new guidance and resources for Texas schools to help prevent suicide among students. This law, and a new anti-bullying law which was passed the same day, will ensure that more Texas youths have someplace (and someone) to turn to when it matters most:

Tonight, the Senate voted 28-3 to pass a suicide prevention bill by Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. This is the bill that was originally called Asher’s Law in honor of Asher Brown, the 13-year gay youth from the Houston area who took his own life last year in response to bullying at school.

Neither bill in its final form contains specific references or protections for LGBT youth. But the fact is that if they did, they wouldn’t have had any chance of passing the Republican-dominated Legislature.

Daniel Williams at Legislative Queery reports on Coleman’s bill:

HB 1386, the teen suicide prevention bill by Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has passed the Texas Senate on a 28 to 3 vote. The bill instructs the Texas Department of State Health Services to develop resources designed to prevent teen suicide, including mental health counseling, crisis prevention tools and suicide prevention eduction. Schools would then have the option of implementing those programs, but would not be required to do so.

Congratulations to Rep. Coleman on these legislative victories, both of which were years in the making – Rep. Coleman is proving once again that he is a friend to the people of Texas.

In 2003, the Republican-dominated legislature in Texas gave the state university governing boards the ability to set tuition rates for their respective schools. Since then, tuition is up an average of 112 percent across the system. At the University of Texas at Austin -- the state’s flagship institution -- tuition is up 164 percent, and the full cost of a four year education is more than $100,000. Obviously, the students who are hardest hit by these added costs are those from middle-income families, and a cost explosion like this runs the risk of putting the best public schools out of reach.

In a state like Texas, which has a projected budget surplus, renewing a commitment to higher education can be awfully good politics. To that end, I really like the movement to regain control of tuition regulation being led by Rep. Garnet Coleman -- a DLCC board member.

Over the past two weeks, he’s given interviews like this one to newspapers across the state and written an op-ed for The Austin American-Statesman calling for the legislature to reassume authority over the universities. Democrats in the State Senate also grilled school representatives about the tuition increases in a hearing at the end of May.

As we saw with the Democratic legislature in Maryland, this isn’t an impossible task -- increasing funding for higher education in a time where enrollment is on the rise can help keep the costs for students down.