A bill to increase Texas teacher salaries has unanimously passed the Senate, but some opponents of the bill say it's not nearly enough to properly compensate teachers. The bill grants raises to teachers based on tenure and merit, both improper measures of teacher success, according to Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the Texas State Teacher’s Association.
In districts with more than 5,000 students, raises would start at $2,500 for teachers with three years of experience and would increase to $5,500 for teachers with five or more years of experience. For teachers in smaller districts, raises would start at $5,000 and increase to $10,000 based on experience.
“It’s an inadequate bill, inadequate pay raise,” said Robison. “It's not enough. We oppose it.”
The average teacher salary in Texas is $60,176, about $9,000 less than the national average, according to the National Education Association. The proposed pay raise, offered only to experienced teachers, isn't enough to put Texas teachers on par with the rest of the country.
Senate Bill 26, authored by Republican Sen. Branden Creighton of Conroe, aims to reduce the urban-rural teacher pay gap while addressing the retention and employment issues within the Texas education system at large, according to a press release from the Texas Senate.
“This will ensure that [teachers] don’t just start strong, but that they stay strong throughout their career,” said Creighton's press release.
While Robison says closing this gap is important, the actual number of teachers receiving the proposed $10,000 is small. Texas has 1,200 school districts, and while over three-quarters have fewer than 5,000 students, 79% of the state’s students are enrolled in school districts with much larger student bodies. This means the bill would benefit some teachers, but it would not benefit the teachers who are conceivably stretched the thinnest nearly as much. Dallas Independent School District, the second largest in the state by population, has 139,000 students and 10,000 teachers, none of whom would qualify for the highest raises proposed by SB 26.
“Most rural teachers make less than urban and suburban teachers, but nevertheless, the vast majority of teachers teach in school districts that are above 5,000 in enrollment,” Robison said. “So most teachers would not get that $10,000 pay raise. Then you're looking at really somewhere between $2,000 to $5,000.”
Robison emphasized that teachers with less than three years of experience don’t qualify for any raise at a time when teacher retention is at a historic low, with nearly half of teachers leaving the field within their first five years. Aside from all the other issues with the bill, he also pointed out that it overlooks the most valuable teachers.
“You could argue, and we do that, [a teacher with 15-20 years experience] probably should get more than that $5,000,” he said. “I mean, you've got a teacher in the fifth year getting the same kind of raise as a teacher who's been there for 20 or maybe in some cases 25 years.”
A secondary component of the bill builds upon the teacher incentive allotment (TIA), an existing pyramid-structured, merit-based raise program funded by the state. The TIA website claims it “was established to provide outstanding teachers an accessible pathway to a six-figure salary.” The top tier of the pyramid, reserved for teachers identified as “master” by their districts, tops out at a $32,000 bonus, according to a press release from the Texas Senate.
But Robison says merit-based raises, determined by school districts and strongly influenced by standardized testing scores, are flawed.
“We don't begrudge [teachers] getting extra money, but we oppose the concept of singling out a select group of teachers, giving them raises based primarily on STAAR test scores, when every teacher in Texas deserves an adequate pay increase. Every student in Texas deserves a teacher with an adequate pay increase,” he said.
Few teachers qualify for the uppermost echelon of the TIA program, keeping overall salaries low. According to a TSTA flyer on teacher pay, less than one-third of 1% of Texas' teachers make six figures through the program.
“More work needs to be done on this pay raise, for one thing. More money needs to be put into it.”
The Money Side Of Things
The bill would create a new allotment pool, separate from the teacher incentive allotment and basic allotment, which is the per-student funding a district receives. The basic allotment of $6,160 per student has not increased since 2019. School districts are responsible for allocating this money to fit their needs, but districts use roughly a third or teacher salaries.
The theory is that creating a separate allotment dedicated to teacher pay will help reserve funds for other crucial line items, according to the press release. The new allotment pool comes in at $4.3 billion, to be invested over two years. But Robison says the state has the funds to do more.
“It's not enough, and they have enough money to do it,” Robison said. “They have a $23 billion surplus, and they have a lot of money in the rainy day fund that's an emergency. They don't consider public school funding and teacher pay an emergency, but I think most educators do. It is an emergency.”
SB 26 Makes Its Way To The House
“Very few legislators are going to vote against a teacher pay raise of any kind because they're so few and far between,” Robison said. “I mean, we don't get pay raises every year. Our teachers don't get pay raises every year. So most legislators, even if they think teachers should have more money, will vote for whatever pay raise comes along.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, all prioritized bills related to education funding for this session.
“We must fund and train the best teachers,” Abbott said during his recent State of the State address. “That starts with giving our teachers a pay raise this session. To increase teachers’ average salary to an all-time high, I am declaring teacher pay an emergency item.”
The education bills they’ve backed are creating concern for public educators, however. All three men are strong supporters of a series of controversial “school choice” bills, one of which is authored by Creighton. The bills would allow parents to use public funds to fund private education. If passed, anti-voucher critics say, the bills would do very little to make private education more affordable, and would only deepen the hole for public schools. Creighton's office did not reply to our request for comment.
“This is the sixth time the Texas Senate has passed school choice, with every previous bill dying in the Texas House,” Patrick said in a press release when Creighton’s school choice bill passed. “The Senate will pass school choice over and over again until the House passes this bill. The days of limiting millions of Texas students to a one-size-fits-all approach are over.”
While the progress of SB 26 appears to be a success for teacher salaries, the top Republicans' dedication to passing school choice is not seen as something that will help Texas teachers, Robison said.
“They could kill that voucher bill and put another billion dollars into teacher pay…it just shows that priorities of the legislative leadership and the governor are wrong,” he said. “They're more interested in funding private schools with tax dollars, including upper-income parents whose kids are already in private school than they are in meeting the needs of public schools, public school students and public school teachers.”
