We must respond to this vigorously, including insisting that our university leaders do so, as well. Let me share a rule-of-thumb in policy and politics: When things get political, we have to get more political.

As we address this, I urge us not to give any ground on post-tenure reviews as it could easily become a slippery slope, session after session, an ongoing rallying cry on the right.

Pay attention, as well to Senate Higher Education Committee Chair Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who proposed a bill during the last legislative session that would have required post-tenure reviews for all already tenured faculty every four years. These could easily can become three-, two- and then a one-year, regular annual reviews.

This scenario—or perhaps even the four-year proposed model—is not only tantamount to taking tenure down, but what a bureaucratic burden this will create, multiplying administrators' work, and in so doing, weakening all of our colleges and universities at a time when they need enormous help just to stay afloat.

Plus, hey, we're still in a pandemic and we have so many other needs right now, including addressing a growing need for mental health services, addressing student debt and financial aid, to name a few. Where is Patrick leading on this crisis that we're actually currently in?

AAUP President Irene Mulvey aptly characterizes herein the profound implications of this attack on higher education as follows:

“There’s always been attempts to interfere in higher education, but I have never seen anything as egregious as this attack,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP. “This is an attempt to have government control of scholarship and teaching. That is a complete disaster. I’ve never seen anything this bad.”

This move will indeed undermine the state’s future.

It's hard not to consider whether or not this is the actual intention. And if so, why such passion around demonizing public K-12 and higher education? Why such passion around burning down bridges instead of building them? Censoring books and curriculum is not only backwards but an untenable proposition in a context of today's knowledge explosion that is only a click away for us all.

It's also a disservice to our youth to deprive them of theoretical knowledge, such as that provided by CRT and numerous other frameworks. Unlike animals that operate out of instinct, as human beings we need theoretical frameworks or knowledge that help us understand ourselves in relationship to, as well as with, each other and the universe, as a whole. This is what a comprehensive, well-conceived educational system provides, that is, a sense of one's self in relation to all that exists where freedom and responsibility are two sides to the same coin.

Why are we at war with ourselves in this state and what are the many costs— especially the opportunity costs—of this war? Expressed differently, what are we not doing that we should be doing as a consequence of Dan Patrick's deployment of his and the governor's many weapons of mass distraction?

-Angela Valenzuela

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposes ending university tenure to combat critical race theory teachings

Patrick’s declarations come days after the UT-Austin Faculty Council approved a measure reaffirming instructors’ right to teach about racial justice and critical race theory in the classroom.

BY KATE MCGEE FEB. 18, 20226 HOURS AGo

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday that he will push to end professor tenure for all new hires at Texas public universities and colleges in an effort to combat faculty members who he says “indoctrinate” students with teachings about critical race theory.

“Go to a private school, let them raise their own funds to teach, but we’re not going to fund them,” said Patrick, who is running for reelection. “I’m not going to pay for that nonsense.”

Patrick, whose position overseeing the Senate allows him to drive the state’s legislative agenda, also proposed a change to state law that could make teaching critical race theory grounds for revoking tenure for professors who already have it. His announcement tees up the next major fight at the Texas Capitol over how college students learn about the history of race and racism in the United States.

Conservatives over the past year have used “critical race theory” as a broad label to attack progressive teachings and books in college and K-12 schools that address race and gender.

Tenure is an indefinite appointment for university faculty that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances. Academics said Friday that tenure is intended to protect faculty and academic freedom from exactly the kind of politicization being waged by Patrick.

“This kind of attack is precisely why we have faculty tenure,” said Michael Harris, a professor at Southern Methodist University studying higher education, who likened tenure to lifetime appointments given to federal judges. “The political winds are going to blow at different times, and we want faculty to follow the best data and theory to try to understand what’s happening in our world.”

Patrick on Friday also proposed making tenure review an annual occurrence instead of something that takes place every six years. At the press conference, he said his proposals already have the support of state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Last legislative session, Creighton filed a bill that would have reduced tenure review periods to every four years and expanded the reasons universities could revoke tenure to include sexual harassment, fiscal malfeasance, plagiarism, conduct involving moral turpitude and “other good causes.” That bill never got out of committee. Nor did another bill that proposed revoking tenure for faculty members who file civil lawsuits against their students. Creighton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Patrick’s plan drew swift condemnation from the American Association of University Professors, the body that helped develop the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure that has been adopted by universities and colleges nationwide.

“There’s always been attempts to interfere in higher education, but I have never seen anything as egregious as this attack,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the AAUP. “This is an attempt to have government control of scholarship and teaching. That is a complete disaster. I’ve never seen anything this bad.”

Mulvey said Patrick had a “fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of tenure” and his definition of academic freedom was “misguided.”

The Texas Faculty Association also criticized the idea and argued it will undermine the state’s future.

“The lieutenant governor’s job is to give our public institutions of education the support they need for student success, and that means encouraging professors and students to discuss theories and issues that some people may find uncomfortable,” said TFA spokesperson Pat Heintzelman. “Patrick, instead, seems intent on ignoring the First Amendment rights of faculty members and their students.”

According to federal data, about 53% of full-time faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin are tenured. Around 40% of all full-time instructional staffers at all public universities and health-related institutions were tenured in 2020.

Patrick said his latest priority is in response to the UT-Austin Faculty Council after it passed a nonbinding resolution Monday to reaffirm instructors’ academic freedom to teach on issues of racial justice and critical race theory.

“Legislative proposals and enactments seek to prohibit academic discussions of racism and related issues if the discussion would be ‘divisive’ or suggest ‘blame’ or cause ‘psychological distress,’” the resolution stated. “But fail to recognize that these criteria … chill the capacity of educators to exercise their academic freedom and use their expertise to make determinations regarding content and discussions that will serve educational purposes.”

One day after the resolution passed, Patrick signaled on Twitter that he would continue the fight against teaching the discipline in the next legislative session.

“I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick wrote on Twitter. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”

Patrick’s mention of publicly funded Liberty Institute, a new center that is still in the planning stages at UT-Austin, also drew criticism from UT-Austin professors. They said his comments suggesting lawmakers are behind the new center contradict previous statements by university officials. On Friday, Patrick said he meant that the resolution passed by the faculty council is an example of why the university needed such an institute.

The proposal to end tenure would fundamentally change the way Texas universities operate in terms of hiring, teaching and research. Faculty members warn it’s likely to impose major challenges for Texas universities to recruit and retain researchers and scholars from across the country.

“Your top-tier talent has lots of options,” Harris said. “And if you hurt your ability to hire the best, you’re not going to do that. … I guarantee you there are university leaders across the country that are making a shopping list of who they’re going to try to steal from the University of Texas if this goes through.”

Harris said even the headlines to propose ending tenure could hurt Texas universities that are hiring faculty members for next year who might think twice about whether to take a job at a public university.

In a statement, the first vice chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus slammed the plan.

“Our public universities are the keystone of Texas’ economic prowess,” said state Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas. “As Republicans like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick make it their mission to undermine public trust in our education system, they will chase away the best and brightest students and educators our state needs to remain great.”

UT-Austin pharmacy professor Andrea Gore, chair of UT’s Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, brought the initial resolution forward to the UT Faculty Council. She told the Tribune she was shocked that a nonbinding resolution passed by the council would elicit such a reaction.

“Those resolutions are important because they allow us to assert our opinions and rights as faculty members, but they normally do not elicit any responses. In fact, they typically gather dust in the faculty council archives,” Gore wrote in an email to the Tribune. “What the [lieutenant governor’s] actions and words tell me is that not only has he been waiting for an opportunity to ban ideas that are counter to his own, he has been preparing to attack tenure as well.”

UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell has remained quiet on the issue. University spokesperson J.B. Bird did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Tribune after Patrick’s press conference Friday.

Domino Perez, president of the Faculty Council, said the council had no official comment but she awaits a response from Hartzell on the plan.

Patrick crusaded last summer against critical race theory in K-12 schools. He said it teaches that “one race is better than another and that someone, by virtue of their race or sex, is innately racist, oppressive or sexist.” Academic experts have said that interpretation is a misrepresentation of critical race theory.

Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed two laws that dictate how teachers can discuss race in the classroom. While neither used the phrase “critical race theory,” lawmakers who supported the measures characterized the legislation as anti-critical race theory.

Senate Bill 3 states a “teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” The law doesn’t define what a controversial issue is. If teachers discuss these topics, they must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.”

The law also also has provisions for teaching about the history of slavery in America, including that slavery cannot be taught as contributing to the “true founding of the United States” and that “with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.”

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

"White Backlash Is A Type Of Racial Reckoning, Too," By Hakeem Jefferson and Victor Ray | FiveThirtyEight

This piece by Hakeem Jefferson and Victor Ray is a bit disheartening, but real, capturing quite well the this moment we find ourselves in of white ethnonationalist backlash and retrenchment. 

Here is where a full accounting of history is much-needed in our state curriculum and public schools, yet this is also what sits at the crosshairs of right-wing, ethnonationalist public policy enthusiasts. In the meantime, if you're in Texas, advocates for teaching the truth need to be present at the April 5, 2022 meeting of the Texas State Board of Education to testify on the K-12 Social Studies Standards. More on this later as the date approaches. 

In the meantime, check out these pertinent news: Scholar who called Biden election a 'literal coup' advising Texas social studies curriculum review. Clearly, we need credible members on these curriculum review teams. If you're interested in being on one of these teams, reach out to whoever represents you and ask to be on one of the teams. In particular, it would be helpful to get historians and social studies experts, professors, graduate students, and teachers to serve as evaluators, in particular, to counter-balance Professor 

Stephen Balch who is a conspiracy theorist.
This link gives you access to the implications of Senate Bill 3, Texas' "anti-Critical Race Theory bill," to state curriculum: Senate Bill 3, 87th Texas Legislature, Second Called Session – Update to Instructional Requirements and Prohibitions.

The Texas State Board of Education has always been a space of contestation. The stakes are as high today as they've ever been. Let's defend the teaching of truth in history and in our social studies curriculum, generally. 

From an organizing perspective, now, more than ever, our African American, Latina/o/x, Asian American and Native American communities with white allies need to come together and form coalitions of conscience so that we can effectively challenge the white backlash we're witnessing right now in local, state, and national-level politics.

We also all need everybody to vote. If you're in Austin, here is the info on
Travis County: Early Voting Locations 2022. If you're not in Austin, here is an informational County Elections web page from the Texas Secretary of State where you can locate voting information for every county statewide.

-Angela Valenzuela

Reference

Jefferson, H. & Ray, V. (2022, Jan. 6). White backlash is a type of racial reckoning, too, FiveThirtyEight, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/white-backlash-is-a-type-of-racial-reckoning-too/

JAN. 6, 2022, AT 6:00 AM

White Backlash Is A Type Of Racial Reckoning, Too

By Hakeem Jefferson and Victor Ray | FiveThirtyEight

Filed under Racial reckoning



PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY SCHERER / GETTY IMAGES

It's time to stand up to the Great Inquisitors of the Inquisition with their book bannings, burnings, their secret police, and their cooptation of vulnerable minds with little knowledge of U.S. history, exploiting a vacuum into which a socially constructed and harmful "fear of the other," gets drumbeat into them.

These ultra-conservative, extremists should stop manipulating people for their own narrow, political ends, ends that are not even about leading and founding a hopeful vision for the future, but going in a diametrically opposite direction with their power hoarding and hostility toward these so-called "others," meaning people that look like me or who are of color.

MY BEST ADVICE REGARDLESS OF WHO YOU ARE—a student, teacher, policymaker, professor, community advocate, well-intended citizen or human being is TO NOT TAKE THE BAIT. That is what they're provoking.

Instead, we act smart, ethically and thoughtfully. We develop a positive policy agenda. I'm not saying we don't take them on at the legislature, but that we control the resources we can for our communities at the local level and we promote positive interethnic/interracial/intergroup relations at all levels. Again, we also promote a just and positive policy agenda. These politics are, among other things, intensely diversionary. And that all, always, also the point—to deflect attention from what really can and should be a substantive, deliberative discourse on the future of our state and nation.

Again, THEY WANT A RACE WAR. DO NOT TAKE THE BAIT. Do consider that many of our young people are military-ready. They, too, could be vulnerable to a provocation. Cool heads must prevail.

There is really good material here in an earlier, pertinent blogpost that similarly involves forces of censorship and our pushback as UT faculty: UT-Austin professors criticize university for halting antiracism study with preschoolers.

Times like these remind me of philosopher Hannah Arendt's famous quote:

“the greatest evil perpetrated is the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who refuse to be persons”

― Hannah Arendt

If these guys aren't going to lead our state into this century and millennium, I wish they would stop not just fighting us, but provoking us into fights. But then, such are clearly the politics and preferences of those that refuse to be part of the human race, to finally embrace that we all bleed red.

John F. Kennedy got it right when he said "Let us never negotiate our of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well, when he said, "We have nothing to fear except fear itself.

Please see my other post today on the pamphleting of Nazi flyers with swastikas on them this past Monday in East Austin. 

Texas state leaders. Please stand up now to these provocations.

-Angela Valenzuela

UT faculty members demand answers after Dan Patrick says Liberty Institute intended to fight critical race theory

The lieutenant governor vowed to ban the teaching of critical race theory at Texas’ public colleges and universities.

BY KATE MCGEE FEB. 16, 20223 HOURS AGO

(Texas Tribune) — A tweet sent by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has reignited concern among some University of Texas at Austin faculty members that the purpose of a new conservative-backed think tank may be to restrict teaching about critical race theory.

“I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick wrote on the social media platform Twitter. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”

Critical race theory, a university-level discipline that studies how race and racism have impacted social and local structures in the United States, has come into the crosshairs of conservative state lawmakers across the country over the past year, including in Texas. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that limits how race, slavery and history are taught in K-12 classrooms.

Now, some faculty members are demanding an explanation from university leadership, arguing that Patrick’s comments directly contradict what administrators told them last fall and raise serious questions about academic freedom and freedom of thought on campus.

“Either the lieutenant governor is just speaking out of school, or he’s reinforcing the very narrative that has provoked individual concerns last fall,” Texas law professor Steve Vladeck told The Texas Tribune. “It’s incumbent upon the university to provide a full-throated update and … explain to faculty members, to whom assurances were made in September, why the lieutenant governor is wrong. Or if he isn’t, why that attitude is acceptable?”

Domino Perez, the president of UT-Austin’s Faculty Council, also said the lieutenant governor’s tweet contradicted what faculty members have been told about the new center.

“We were told that the idea for the institute originated with faculty on campus,” she told The Texas Tribune.

Last August, the Tribune reported that UT-Austin leaders were working with private donors and Patrick to create the Liberty Institute, a center “dedicated to the study and teaching of individual liberty, limited government, private enterprise and free markets.” Public documents revealed that these leaders wanted the center as a way to bring “intellectual diversity” to campus. The two proposals provided by Patrick’s office suggested those involved in the project had political motivations to launch the institute at the flagship university.

Patrick’s tweet was in response to a nonbinding measure passed by the UT-Austin Faculty Council this week that reaffirms the group’s academic freedom to teach about race, gender and, specifically, critical race theory.

Bryan Jones, the ​​J. J. “Jake” Pickle regents chair in congressional studies in UT-Austin’s government department, said Patrick’s comments on Twitter make clear his intent to suppress free speech on campus. He said UT-Austin should reject the state money for this institute.

“[UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell’s] got a lot of explaining to do because he will not keep a great university having this kind of institution on campus,” Jones said. “We will have increased problems attracting senior people at least. They’re gonna ask about this. … I would.”

While UT-Austin officials have stated on the university website that it is too early to say what the center’s name will be, it received $6 million dollars in the state budget for the University of Texas at Austin Liberty Institute last spring. Last August, the University of Texas Board of Regents chipped in an additional $6 million toward the new endeavor.

Bob Rowling, a conservative billionaire businessperson and well-known UT-Austin donor, confirmed to the Tribune last year that he and oil company executive Bud Brigham were involved in the project. Rowling told the Tribune in August that Brigham was the “real leader on this.”

Last September, Provost Sharon Wood initially tried to calm faculty concerns over the institute at a Faculty Council meeting, stating that the institute’s intent was to “support and help attract faculty” with a specific investment in philosophy, politics and economics. The university has posted a page about the new institute on its website, stating that it is still in planning phases, and that the school hopes to hire three to five new faculty members within the normal university hiring protocols.

UT officials have not responded to multiple requests for interviews or written questions about the institute. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about Patrick’s tweet.

Vladeck said without clarity from the university, the original questions about the institute’s true intent have been resuscitated.

“Potentially creating new institutes and devoting submitted resources outside of the normal faculty process to appease the political whims of the state leadership would be a pretty ominous precedent,” he said.

This is not the first time Patrick has taken credit for helping to launch the Liberty Institute.

At a Texas Public Policy Foundation 2022 Policy Orientation keynote address earlier this year, Patrick told the crowd that Brigham and Bill Holmes, an oil executive from Midland, approached him to start the institute at UT-Austin and asked for the $6 million in state funding. Patrick said UT Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife and Hartzell both signed off on the idea, but professors “shot it down” because they wanted to have control of hiring.

“Well, that’s the whole point,” Patrick told the crowd with a chuckle. “We don’t want to hire you guys.”

Patrick said they continue to work to bring the institute to the university. The Tribune asked Patrick’s office to elaborate on his tweet but did not receive an immediate response.

Meanwhile, his tweet Tuesday signals that the debate over teaching about history, race and critical race theory is headed to Texas’ colleges and universities. Vladeck said while faculty members have been concerned about this issue, it was only a matter of time before the conversation shifted to higher education.

“I still have to hope that calmer minds will prevail and will realize it’s in everyone’s interest to preserve the principle of academic freedom at the university that bears the state’s name,” he said.

“Hopefully, even the lieutenant governor understands that a transparently partisan assault on academic freedom at the state’s flagship public university will only hurt the university — and, through it, the state itself.”

Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Correction, Feb. 16, 2022: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the UT-Austin provost. She is Sharon Wood, not Susan Wood.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

White Supremacist Activity in East Austin: Whatever You Do, Do not take the Bait

Students, Friends, Colleagues and all Fellow Texans:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

A colleague of mine, former UT College of Education Professor Doug Foley found these flyers from the Aryan Freedom Network in his East Austin yard on Monday.  He lives in what is now called the East campus area, close to I-35. His best guess is that they are targeting his residential area to create a race war, coinciding with Dan Patrick's expressed goal of establishing the Liberty Institute at UT—funded in part by our hard-earned tax dollars—in order to clamp down on the teaching of Critical Race Theory.

Dr. Foley is asking us to share and circulate this garbage, this disgusting invective, anywhere you see fit. As mentioned in my other post today, please do not take the bait. We must go the way of peace. Please, no violence. We're better than that.

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas schools are majority Hispanic. There’s been a shortage of bilingual teachers since 1990, and the pandemic made it worse.

Concerning teacher pay in Texas, what a sad state of affairs, particularly since our teachers are frontline workers, now more than ever, in the context of the pandemic: 

"The average pay for teachers has not increased between 2010 and 2019; it instead decreased from $55,433 to $54,192, according to the report."

This is critical considering two polls, one by the Charles Butt Foundation and another by the Texas American Federation of Teachers find that 68 percent and 66 percent of educators, respectively have recently seriously considered getting out of the profession altogether.

Yes, this has been festering, however, the situation IS amenable to policy solutions, beginning at the district level, I would say, with incentivizing the teaching of bilingual education, as well as other shortage areas. Over a million children in Texas are bilingual learners such that addressing their needs is essential. 

We're in the interim period right now, with the January, 2023 88th session of the Texas State Legislature rapidly approaching. Now is the time for our advocacy community, including parents, and coalitions of conscience, to make plans to address our state's critical teacher shortage.

-Angela Valenzuela

Additional Reading:

Carver-Thomas, D. (2022). Teacher Shortages Take Center Stage, Learning Policy Institute

Carver-Thomas, D., Burns, D., Leung, M. & Ondrasek, N. (2022). Teacher Shortages During the Pandemic: How California Districts Are Responding, Learning Policy Institute

Lopez, B. (2021, Sept. 9). The pandemic’s toll on educators has made Texas’ teacher shortage worse, Texas Tribune

 Texas schools are majority Hispanic. There’s been a shortage of bilingual teachers since 1990, and the pandemic made it worse.

The pandemic is driving educators away from the profession, including key areas such as bilingual education.

BY BRIAN LOPEZ FEB. 11, 20225 AM CENTRAL

Mariela Vasquez Ehlers, a former teacher, sits in her home in Harlingen on Wednesday. Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune

Many of the students in Mariela Ehlers’ classroom spoke primarily Spanish at home. As a bilingual teacher at Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District, it was her job to teach them both English and Spanish.

But when she looked at these children, she saw herself. She was the kid who spoke only Spanish at home before starting school.

As a bilingual teacher, she often had to work double duty. She would send out parent newsletters in both English and Spanish, pay for students’ field trips and maintain constant communication with parents about their child’s education.

But at 50, coming off the straining COVID-19 pandemic, she retired last summer.

“I felt exhausted,” she said.

Over the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have left the profession citing burnout and health concerns — adding to Texas’ ongoing teacher shortage. Two new surveys show an increase in dissatisfaction with pay, workload, health and safety.

It’s a problem across the board, but in a state that is 39% Hispanic, one area is hit particularly hard: locating and retaining teachers who speak both Spanish and English.

There are over 1 million English learners in Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency, and Hispanics make up more than half of the state’s student population.

In the past decade, years before the pandemic hit, Texas was struggling to find teachers and has consistently struggled to fill bilingual teacher positions since the 1990-1991 academic school year, according to a recent University of Houston report.

From 2010 to 2019, the number of teachers certified fell by about 20%, according to the report. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of bilingual certifications stayed steady with an average of about 4,000 a year, but administrators find it difficult to retain and recruit bilingual educators.

The pre-pandemic teacher shortage 

Public school teachers in Texas have felt unsupported and treated unfairly even before the pandemic, said Bob Popinski, director of policy at the education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas. The pandemic has only put more stress on teachers.

Popinski said those high levels of stress on teachers coupled with being undervalued and underpaid is driving more teachers out.

The average pay for teachers has not increased between 2010 and 2019; it instead decreased from $55,433 to $54,192, according to the report.

In 2019, Republican lawmakers mandated raises for teachers in an ​​$11.6 billion overhaul of public school finance. The bill also included a merit raise system aimed to help rural and high-need school districts attract talent. In rare cases, the program rewards Texas’ highest-rated educators with hefty pay raises that could balloon to a six-figure salary.

The University of Houston report did not include the inclusion of the law.

In a Charles Butt Foundation poll of 919 Texas teachers last year, 68% said they seriously considered leaving the profession in 2021, an increase of 10 percentage points compared to the year before.

“The future success of our state is linked to our ability to recruit and retain effective teachers,” Popinski said in an email. “It will be up to our local communities and state to begin developing new policies that help better attract, prepare, and retain our teachers.”

School districts over the summer faced large vacancies as the pandemic has exacerbated the issue. The Houston Independent School District, the largest district in the state, had more than 700 vacant positions last summer. That number is down to 192, still a large number of vacancies. To attract talent, schools have offered more pay and stipends, with Houston ISD approving a $2,500 sign-on bonus.

In Waco, the school district increased base pay to over $50,000 last summer, and in Killeen, the district ​​increased base pay to about $52,000.

This week, a Texas American Federation of Teachers survey of 3,800 of its members found that 66% of educators throughout Texas said they have recently considered leaving their job. President Zeph Capo said teacher discontent has been festering for a long time and the pandemic only increased that feeling.

“In addition to long-neglected low wages and the stress of increasing workloads, the Omicron surge has created unbelievable chaos,” Capo said in an email. “Educators witness every day the devastating effects on our students when schools have staffing shortages. It’s only going to get worse unless teachers’ concerns are addressed.”

The bilingual teacher shortage

For Ehlers, the pandemic was the final straw. She had already been feeling overworked. Before the pandemic, she remembers some days she would not leave work until 9 p.m.

As part of her bilingual instruction, Ehlers would teach in English for two days a week, then in Spanish for the other three days. But often, she would have to translate books and other lesson plans into Spanish on her own, and the constant shifting between virtual and in-person classes just added to her workload.

“I never wanted to cheat my students out,” she said.

Teachers across the state have had similar experiences to Ehlers, but in some instances, the struggles for bilingual educators begin even before setting foot in the classroom.

To become a bilingual teacher, a person must take two exams and one of them is a five-hour-long Spanish proficiency exam.

Edith Treviño, founder and CEO of Dr. ET and Company, which provides review sessions on the Spanish proficiency exam, said when she first took the tests it completely drained her.

“This test is so hard, and I am a native speaker of Spanish and I struggled with it,” she said.

Treviño said helping people prepare for the proficiency exam can be demoralizing for them so it’s part of her job to push future teachers to keep going and letting them know that they can change the lives of many children.

“Bilingual teachers serve as an advocate,” she said. “They serve as liaison for culture and language.”

Andy Canales, executive director of Latinos for Education in Texas, believes one cause of the shortages is that only about 23% of Hispanic students were at or above criteria on a standardized test used for college admission. On top of that, Hispanics in college see that teachers don’t have that high of a salary and would much rather look for higher-paying jobs that will allow them to take care of their families.

Being able to master two languages is a massive benefit to a child, said Maribel Cantu, a mother of three bilingual children and a bilingual teacher herself in McAllen Independent School District. She has one child in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school.

Cantu made the decision to enroll her children in a bilingual program at their schools in Sharyland Independent School District because she wanted them to continue practicing their Spanish while learning English.

When she made that decision, she was asked if she was OK with her kids being labeled as English learners and she didn’t understand why that was a bad thing.

“I don’t consider it a label,” she said. “The one in the high school is completely fluent in both languages. Anywhere he goes, in any job he takes, because he knows two languages he is going to be worth a lot more.”