Texas Senate's teacher raise plan would boost small wealthy districts
Houston ISD teacher Coretta Mallett-Fontenot speaks on Monday, March 13, 2023, at the Texas AFL-CIO
building in Austin during a rally of the Texas American Federation of Teachers. -William Luther/Staff
Alamo Heights, Friendswood teachers would get $6,000 raises, while Houston and San Antonio teachers would get $2,000.
While nearly everyone agrees that teachers deserve pay raises, there’s a divide over how to do it that has public school advocates in the House and Senate speaking out against bills to increase education funding.
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In the Senate, Republicans have crafted a key teacher pay raise bill that would mean much bigger raises for teachers in wealthy districts versus urban school districts that are struggling to hold onto teachers. Democratic senators from Houston, San Antonio and Austin all questioned how that could be fair.
And in the House, although the budget proposal sets aside about $5 billion in increased funding for schools, billions more are earmarked for property tax relief. Democrats pushed for even more education money, higher teacher raises and more investment in special education over and over on Thursday, but Republicans voted down their efforts.
Despite the agreement on the need to do something as inflation eats away at school funding and a teacher shortage crisis hits districts around the state, there’s anything but agreement on the methods and extent for the fixes.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and the author of the Senate bill providing teacher pay raises, defended it as a way that "demonstrates our commitment to our Texas classroom teachers. Our education system would be nothing without our excellent teachers."
Under the bill, all public school teachers should qualify for a $2,000 pay increase. But in school districts with fewer than 20,000 students, those increases would jump to $6,000. The move was intended to help small rural districts attract teachers, Creighton said, but the results would benefit mid-sized, wealthy districts, too.
In the Houston area it would mean teachers in Friendswood ISD would qualify for $6,000 increases while Houston ISD teachers would be capped at $2,000. In San Antonio, Alamo Heights teachers would qualify for the $6,000 increase, while San Antonio ISD teachers would get $2,000. And in Dallas it would mean bigger pay increases for Duncanville ISD teachers than for those in the Dallas ISD.
“Why are we paying teachers differently here?” said state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.
Sen. José Menéndez of San Antonio joined West in criticizing the bill, saying as much as he wants pay increases for teachers, it is impossible for him to vote for a bill that is sending more money to teachers in wealthy districts than some poorer districts.
“We need to be treating our teachers like the professionals that they are," Menéndez said.
Menéndez joined with 9 other Senate Democrats in voting against the bill, cheered on by the Association of Texas Professional Educators, which represents teachers.
'Show me your values'
The existing House budget would raise basic per-student funding by about $50, its first increase since 2019. Teachers unions have estimated that such a hike would amount to a teacher pay raise of less than $500. Democrats and education groups have called instead for a raise of $1,000, saying a hike of that magnitude would be necessary to keep up with inflation.
Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, has authored a bill that he said would tie future increases to per-student state education funding to inflation — a major priority of education advocates. He estimated that under that proposal, per-student funding would be increased by $140 over the next two years.
“There are billions and billions of dollars out there that are coming into public education one way or another and while teachers are vital and certainly my top priority, there are other programs — other things — that need to be funded,” King said.
Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat and his party’s floor leader, noted that House members voted to give their staff a raise at the beginning of the session.
“This is just showing me your values, do you care about teachers? Show me your values: Do you care about raising their budgets like you care about raising our budgets?” Martinez Fischer asked.
He questioned why property tax relief is more of a priority than education and teacher salaries.
“Our teachers pay property taxes as well,” responded Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, the chief education appropriator in the chamber.
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