Teacher Pay: Texas Teachers Deserve a Real Pay Raise

 Morgan Smith: Welcome to the Intersect Ed Podcast, where the stories of public education policy and practice meet. 

I’m your host, Morgan Smith. 

Today we are talking about Texas teachers, and how much we pay them. Or I should say: how much we don’t pay them. 

What started as a slow drain — as stagnant pay forced teachers out of the classroom during the hardships of COVID, the economic downturn, and inflation — has now accelerated into a crisis. Texas public schools simply can’t keep the teachers they need in the classroom. It’s hard to overstate the urgency of what’s happening. 

School districts, already operating on skeleton crews, are dropping advanced and elective courses because there are no teachers to teach them. They are combining classes — sometimes even recruiting parents to fill in — because there are no substitute teachers. And the teachers who remain are working second and third jobs just to pay basic household expenses. All of this has led a heartbreaking number of Texas educators to say they are seriously considering leaving the profession. 

Right now in Austin, lawmakers are deciding how to spend a record-breaking $33 billion surplus, with tens of billions more in estimated growth in revenue over the next two years. And, as the hours creep closer and closer to the last day of the 2023 legislative session, they are not deciding to spend it on teachers.

Yes, you may have seen headlines about some major legislation — Senate Bill 9 and House Bill 100 are two of the proposals out there that would increase teacher pay. But here’s what you need to know about those bills: they don’t come anywhere close to moving Texas teacher pay in line with the national average OR bumping their salaries enough to keep up with inflation. 

JoLisa Hoover: I think there's been a moment where some people in society have said, "Teachers, if you don't like it, you can leave," and our teachers have left. 

Morgan: This is JoLisa Hoover, who spent 26 years as a teacher in Texas public schools before joining Raise Your Hand in 2019. She was named the organization’s Teacher Specialist in 2022. 

JoLisa: In the beginning of the pandemic, our teachers just pivoted overnight, and redesigned their entire career. They were making sure kids got fed. They were distributing technology out into the neighborhoods. They were checking in on families, and they were really just lifted up as heroes, only for a few short years later to be villainized for a variety of things and their pay has just been very stagnant. 

Morgan: As a part of Raise Your Hand’s work developing policy recommendations for the 88th Legislature, their statewide team of Regional Advocacy Directors met with Texas educators ahead of the legislative session. They heard from over 697 teachers from 79 different school districts. During the legislative session, JoLisa and the team brought more than 75 teachers on a weekly basis to the Capitol to speak with their lawmakers.

JoLisa: The teachers are talking about how their money just isn't going as far as it used to, and in particular, that's hit teachers hard because their pay had already been stagnant before some of the recent inflation has hit all of us. And so they're already in a job that penalizes them for choosing teaching, financially, and then to have the pay stay quite stagnant, it's been really hard for our teachers. 

Morgan: JoLisa says there’s one word that keeps coming up over and over again, when teachers talk about the state of their profession: stress. The stress of not being financially independent. The stress of working a second job, and still not being able to meet the needs of their families. The stress of not being able to pay for medical procedures, home repairs, or make their rent. The stress of driving long distances to work each day because they can’t afford to live where they teach. 

JoLisa: I heard teachers talk about that they're doing what they need to do to make ends meet, but it can be embarrassing to see your students while you're working your second job, and yet our teachers are purchasing their own supplies because they need them to do their job. They are buying extra snacks for kids who are hungry, buying coats for kids who don't have them, and so they view their job as being part of the essential bills that they have to pay, is keeping their students supported.

Morgan: If you don’t