Here's How Dallas ISD Teacher Pay Has Changed In The Last 10 Years

Texas’ public education system funding was under the microscope this legislative session.

Ahead of the start of the session, the Dallas Independent School District named increased funding for teacher compensation and retention as one of their priorities. The district cited a lack of proper state funding as the source of an inability to provide teacher raises that keep up with the inflation rate.

In the last 10 years, the average Dallas ISD teacher's salary increased by $17,121. This school year, teachers will see a few extra thousand dollars in their paycheck, but the average teacher salary in the city and state will still fall far below the national average.

“Because no new significant dollars have been provided to public education in Texas during the last five years, Dallas ISD has only been able to provide 2% cost-of-living increases to teachers during each of the last 2 years,” reads the priority announcement from Dallas ISD. “Funding is needed to help educators keep up with the rising cost of inflation.”

Bolstering teacher pay was also a key effort of Gov. Greg Abbott, who boasted about the signing of House Bill 2. The bill, which is not fully endorsed by educator associations, allocates $4 billion to teacher pay raises across the state. The funds go directly to the existing Teacher Incentive Allotment, which is a pyramid-structure pay raise system based on teacher tenure and standardized testing scores.

Through the revamped Teacher Incentive Allotment, teachers with 3-4 years of experience in districts with 5,000 or fewer students will get a $4,000 raise, and those with five or more years of experience will get $8,000. For larger districts, teachers with three to four years of experience will get a $2,500 raise, and those with five or more years of experience will get a $5,000 raise. This means urban teachers, like those in Dallas ISD, will benefit the least from the program, but can still expect a small pay bump.

“Now is the time to make Texas No. 1 in educating our children," said Abbott in a press release applauding the bill. "House Bill 2 ensures that our schools are funded better than ever, teacher pay and student funding are at all-time highs, reading and math performance will improve, and students will be better prepared for the workforce. The foundation is now in place for Texas education to start climbing the ranks."

Teacher associations say that the legislative pay raise is a long time coming, but still falls short of catching Texas teachers up to the national average. According to records from the Texas Education Agency, the average teacher in Texas makes $63,749, about $9,000 behind the national average. At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the average teacher in Dallas made $70,343, about $2,000 less than the national average in the city with the highest cost of living in the state.

In the 2014-2015 school year, the average teacher in Dallas ISD made $53,222. In the 2019-2020 school year, teachers made an average of $60,146. While teacher salaries are steadily increasing, the district continues to work to raise them even further. In May, the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees approved a new budget that set the starting teacher pay at $64,000.

“The increases in salaries for all team members amount to $35.9 million in the 2025-2026 budget and focus on the district’s compensation priorities: market competitive salaries, Dallas ISD’s commitment to a living wage, strategic compensation, and stipends for service at identified District Support Initiative campuses,” read a press release from the district announcing the new budget with increased pay.