Katrina Rasmussen sometimes gets chills as she watches her students learn. Her Dallas art classroom comes alive with energy when the kids really engage in discussions.
It’s that feeling that’s kept her in the teaching profession amid stagnant wages, school safety fears and the extra work demands that bleed into her evenings and weekends.
Rasmussen and her husband, also an educator, increasingly have discussions about their futures in the profession. For now, she’s in. Her own children are enrolled in DISD, and she doesn’t want to abandon her students.
“But I’m also watching to see what’s going to happen in the legislative session,” she said, “and whether they’re going to be giving us a meaningful raise.”
Lawmakers pledged to meaningfully tackle the obstacles that stand in the way of teacher recruitment and retention. An educator shortage and the pandemic put the issue into stark relief.
But with the days in Austin dwindling, some teachers said they’re still waiting for their elected officials to walk the walk.
Among legislation with the most momentum is the “Teacher Bill of Rights,” which tackles compensation and training, among other issues. Some of its recommendations borrow from a lengthy report issued by the Texas Teacher Vacancy Task Force.
“As much as I love my job, it’s a job that I consider leaving multiple times a week,” Melina Recio, a McAllen teacher, testified before a recent Senate education committee. “When I think about what it would take to keep me and some of my fellow colleagues in the classroom, it is exactly the recommendations of the teacher vacancy task force that are reflected here in this bill.”
But despite how it’s marketed, some educator groups say the bill doesn’t take adequate steps toward raising pay. Texas teacher salaries lag behind other states and many educators said they struggle to get by.
The proposal would provide a $2,000 boost next school year for classroom teachers in large districts. In those with fewer than 20,000 students, teachers would get a $6,000 bump.
Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the bill’s author, said this provision aims to even-out salaries in rural districts, where teacher pay is often much lower than in urban centers.
Texas is home to more than 1,000 school districts. And while many of the small districts are in rural communities, several others are wealthy enclaves adjacent to big city systems.
Rasmussen, the DISD teacher, is married to a Highland Park educator. Her husband would bring home the larger bonus for working in a nearby district of nearly 7,000 students, almost none of whom come from poverty.
Some of Rasmussen’s colleagues – teacher’s aides and other support staff in the school – would not be included under Creighton’s proposal. These employees often make far less than teachers and are also in short supply.
Another priority effort comes from the House. Rep. Ken King’s bill would give a small bump to the base amount of money districts get per-student and mandate schools use much of that money to increase pay for employees.
Dramatically raising the basic allotment is the No. 1 preference for the educator group Texas AFT, spokesperson Nicole Hill said. Doing so has a trickle down effect on everything else, including the size of raises and the availability of support services.
“If there’s not a substantive basic allotment increase, a lot of things do not happen for our schools,” Hill said.
Beyond the bills looking specifically at teacher pay, many educators are closely watching the broader debate over whether the Legislature will pass a school voucher-like initiative that would funnel public dollars into private schools.
A state fiscal note found that the plan could cost an estimated $1 billion a year by 2028, while draining funds from public schools.
“I wouldn’t be legislating to pass any law that is going to take money away from public funding,” Dallas teacher Tania Hernandez said. “That’s number one.”
School safety
Rasmussen knows the fastest path she can take to lock her classroom door. She knows where her students can hide if there’s an active shooter.
She doesn’t know why Texas lawmakers haven’t taken what she considers meaningful action to make her feel safe at school. Fears about violence affect her every day.
“I’m looking for, at bare minimum, a conversation from our state representatives,” she said. “Limiting access to guns, making sure people who shouldn’t have access to guns don’t have access to guns.”
The GOP-led Legislature doesn’t appear to have an appetite for gun control measures after the Uvalde mass school shooting. Republican leaders instead have talked about hardening campuses, increasing mental health support and cracking down on school discipline.
Nearly half of teachers cite discipline or a safe work environment as a top concern, according to state data. The Texas Teacher Vacancy Task Force surveyed teachers who said student behavior and ineffective discipline support from administrators contribute to workplace stress.
A bill in the Senate would make it easier for teachers to remove disruptive students from class and sets out processes for getting educator input before those children can return.
Kacie Smith, a former Texas educator, said she left the profession after her administration did not protect her from a student’s online harassment.
She wants a teacher to have the ultimate say in whether a student is allowed to return to the classroom after an incident.
“Our first need is to be safe,” she said. “If teachers don’t feel safe, they can’t do their jobs well.”
Classroom politicization
Several of the bills with momentum this session are influenced by the education culture wars.
Hours of testimony were devoted to subjects such as inappropriate library books or eliminating diversity and equity efforts.
Gov. Greg Abbott – who has been touring the state to promote education savings accounts – has slammed public schools during these events. He accused some of sexualizing kids, teaching a radical ideology and promoting “woke-ism.”
This focus has left some teachers fearful of being accused of indoctrinating students.
A fall poll by the Charles Butt Foundation raised the alarm about teachers not feeling supported by elected officials.
“When we began polling Texas teachers in the spring of 2020, 58 percent of teachers had seriously considered leaving the profession,” their report reads. “Just two years later, amidst a global pandemic, political tensions, and immeasurable challenges, that number has skyrocketed to 77 percent.”
Many of the bills that could move the needle for teachers have not been prioritized for debate, Texas AFT’s Hill said. For example, they’re waiting for action on limiting class sizes.
“It is lackluster so far,” she said.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
