Greg Abbott fulfills nine campaign promises, but 13 vows broken, per PolitiFact Texas Abbott-O-Meter

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At the midpoint of his four-year term, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has fulfilled nine campaign promises and signed off on three compromises, according to the PolitiFact Texas Abbott-O-Meter, which tracks progress on his campaign promises.

Give credit to a loosening of handgun limits and legislative approval in 2015 of millions of dollars in targeted education aid.

But the meter, which we debuted after Abbott won his post in 2014, also shows 13 Abbott promises Broken -- and that’s before we rate progress on 20 promises.

Then again, all of this is subject to change based on what happens during the 2017 regular legislative session that began last month. For instance, perhaps lawmakers will bear down on ethics reform or commit to fiscal tweaks advocated by Abbott and fellow Republicans.

Abbott, the former state attorney general and a former Texas Supreme Court justice and state district judge, laid out most of his promises while running for governor in his Bicentennial Blueprint, a 213-page compendium of "policy plans" toward the state gaining lots of ground by 2036--when Texas marks its 200th anniversary of independence months before Abbott turns 79.

What we’ve rated as the governor’s Promises Kept:

--Legalize openly carrying handguns in public and allow concealed handguns to be carried on public college campuses, in both cases limited to holders of state handgun licenses;

--Launch a state system awarding letter grades to individual public schools;

--Offer additional state aid to schools provided high-quality pre-kindergarten programs;

--Support reading improvement teams, at a two-year cost of $3.7 million, targeting students at a few low-rated schools;

--Create reading-to-learn academies, supported by $11 million in state aid over two years, for elementary school teachers;

--Revive literacy achievement academies, at a two-year budgeted cost of $17.8 million, for early-grade teachers;

--Launch math and technology academies for elementary-school teachers, at a cost of $22 million over two years.

--Focus additional funding on cancer screenings and treatment for low-income Texans, which lawmakers did in the 2016-17 state budget by providing $50 million a year for primary health care services to women including but not limited to preventive health screenings such as breast and cervical cancer screenings.

The trio of compromises we identified on the Abbott-O-Meter all concern Texas schools:

--Abbott compromised on his campaign call for parents to be able to petition for state intervention at a school after two years of poor performance. Under a 2015 law, parents of children in a school with poor ratings for two straight years must be notified that the school is being required to present a "turnaround" plan;

--The same House Bill 1842 newly enabled the state education commissioner to act more quickly to overhaul a school with poor ratings for three straight years; Abbott had vowed to group the state’s very worst performing elementary schools for tighter outside oversight.

--As a candidate, Abbott said all districts with pre-kindergarten classes should be required to "administer assessments at the beginning and end of the school year" by picking from a list of state-approved assessments.  House Bill 4, which Abbott signed into law, requires districts offering pre-k classes to assess students in those classes and publicize the outcomes.

Abbott promises Broken include several proposed constitutional amendments, which require legislative action and voter approval to stick.

To recap, his call to tighten how lawmakers tap the state’s economic stabilization or "rainy day" fund led to a 2015 proposal that died without a hearing. Also, Abbott’s goal of toughening the state’s constitutional spending cap didn’t yield a House-Senate agreement and a measure fulfilling his declared interest in no longer allowing lawmakers to balance the state budget by tying up dedicated funds ran aground in a Senate committee.

Meantime, Abbott ultimately vetoed ethics legislation and we rated several of his ethics promises as Broken including his call for closing loopholes enabling legislators to vote on proposals financially benefiting themselves; in the 2015 session, a mild version of that proposal didn’t draw a hearing. Also unfulfilled: Abbott promises to limit lawyers who are legislators from making money by providing lawsuit referrals and to require elected officials to disclose more information about personal finances.

Similarly, Abbott’s campaign-trail declaration there should be a law against state government selling personal information without a person’s permission didn’t result in a change in law.

On the health care front, Abbott said as a candidate that it was time for Texas to fund Medicaid with block grants. "The one-size-fits-all approach, mandated from Washington, D.C., and the Medicaid system, does not help Texas address the unique needs of the diverse population we have in this state," Abbott said.

As of April 2016, though, there was no sign of Abbott taking steps to fulfill the promise perhaps, we speculated, because Congress has to act for such block grants to be possible. Perhaps with a Republican president settling in, this rating will reverse.

It’s likely that Abbott has more promises that won’t fare well.

For instance, his ambitious vow to have five of the state’s universities rank among the nation’s top 10 according to U.S. News and World Report doesn’t seem realistic. The publication’s 2017 rankings list no Texas institutions among the top 10 U.S. universities; the University of Texas placed No. 18 among public colleges, Texas A&M University was No. 27.

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