PAY RAISE FOR TEACHERS UNANIMOUSLY PASSES TEXAS SENATE, MOVES TO HOUSE
A Texas Senate bill calling for a $5,000 annual pay raise for school teachers and librarians is now headed to the House.
Senators voted unanimously on Monday to approve the bill, which was deemed priority legislation for many lawmakers, including Governor Greg Abbott.
School librarians were not originally included in the pay raise, but the bill’s author, Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), added an amendment Monday to cover them with the raise.
Under the bill, the state would give funding to school districts for raises for more than 350,000 full-time classroom teachers and librarians, at a cost of $3.9 billion over the next two years. The bill calls for state revenue, not local, to fund these pay raises.
Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), co-author of the bill, said teachers are “the most valuable asset in public education”, and “unsung heroes” who prepare youth for success.
Well deserved teacher pay raise.
Yes, these are societal problems.
Therefore, society needs to compensate those who deal with this social decline where authority is disrespected.
The authority figures (teachers) are told and expected to control their classrooms while abiding by the strict limitations placed on them by the district and state. This conflict creates tremendous stress. Teachers are expected to force a child to learn whether they want to be involved in the process or not.
Teachers bare full responsibility for the educational performance, discipline, and well being of OUR children.
Too much??
No, but these are the ones who should be primarily compensated.
BA, I appreciate and understand your arguments, but have you been in the schools or live with a teacher? It may be the most demanding job outside an accountant during tax season and the spouses can suffer. Haha. What’s sad is they are using their own personal money for supplies in the classroom that the school doesn’t want to cover only for a $250 tax break. Now some go completely overboard and can’t complain when they think their room should look like the Ritz Carlton, but other expenses are necessary and the school should help a little more than the budgeted amount. What’s sad is coaches on top of teaching getting a $1,000 stipend for roughly 60-70 days per bigger sports ($14.28-16.66/day) and spending 2-4 hours after work for practices, on weekends including Sunday game planning or tournaments, and game nights that may not put them home until 11:00 or midnight. What’s sad is poor school districts (usually with bad behavioral kids) unable to attract and even retain quality teachers with a pathetic pay scale. I understand the teachers sign up for this on their yearly contract, but somebody has to do the work and they need to be appreciated. I personally don’t like the $5,000 raise across the board because some teachers don’t deserve it and others deserve more based on their performance. But I can see that getting into a subjective issue and potential discrimination. I also don’t know if I can trust the administration to be good stewards of the money based on what I’ve seen my taxes go to. If you want to know, ask the teachers about the nice lady from Arizona that came in and started slamming DACA down their throats. In the end, we want folks to have a livable wage in whatever industry they are in AND not be taxed to death. Good arguments on your end!
If this actually passes, I can’t wait to see how Brenham ISD manages to take a $5,000 wage and turn it into a $2,000 raise, just like they do with the fake mid-point pay increase they roll out every year making the public think they are giving a good raise, when in fact it amounts to very little for the teachers.
Thank you Senator Kolkhorst!!!!!!!
The average teacher makes over 50k a year……they work 9 months a year……how in the world is that underpaid??? I understand they’ve got a super important job but this is ridiculous, plenty of jobs are important to society but we can’t all demand raises
Jonnie, obviously you’re not married to a teacher or don’t know any. The things they deal with on a daily basis from kids whose parents refuse to parent would make them underpaid at twice what they make now. Not to mention that without people who are willing to teach and instruct our children this world falls apart pretty quickly. I’d challenge you to spend one week in a classroom and face the disrespect these kids dish out and I guarantee your opinion would change.
These are societal problems you are pointing out. No amount of teacher pay is going to fix these.
Absolutely! And the average 50k a year salary is well above what Brenham Public School Teachers make. Many teachers are not at home with their feet up relaxing during the summer, and on the evenings during the school year…THEY ARE WORKING – grading papers, talking with parents (most are unconcerned parents), making lesson plans, helping students, etc. Many many teachers work more than an 8 hour day. So, yes, UNDERPAID and OVERWORKED is what teachers are!
These are societal issues. No amount of teacher pay will fix that.
True enough that these are societal issues, but the comment was that teachers are fairly compensated. The task of dealing with these societal issues falls on the teachers. If society expects teachers to be substitute parents (and many people do) they should be fairly compensated for having to shoulder not only their professional responsibilities but also the responsibilities of parents who refuse to parent. Again, I challenge you to spend one week in the classroom and then leave your opinion as to this matter. We tell our teachers over and over again that they have the most important job in the world, educating our future leaders, doctors, lawyers, etc. and then refuse to compensate them as if that statement were true.
9 Months +. Most school districts make teachers show up between 10 & 11 months, kids there or not. Many districts require teachers to be at school at night & some have to be there on Saturdays for testing, school events, etc.
Teachers also sign a contract every year. If they do not agree with these terms they can negotiate other terms or seek employment elsewhere.
They have to be there for open house and other special nights/evenings. They leave late and go home and work more. They put up with kids who don’t respect authority and disrupt the classrooms. They deal with all kinds of parents. They do all of this and try their darndest to get the lessons and knowledge passed on to the kids. If you think $50,000 is too much for a teacher, shadow one for a day.
Ive been teaching almost 10 years and I do not make 50k. I also am required to attend after school events and multiple all day training sessions throughout the summer, neither of those am I compensated for. I also spend about 2-3k per year on various needs for my classroom and my students, ranging from art supplies to lunches for kids with no money. Doctors arent expected to buy their own supplies. Yes there are societal issues that are rampant that a pay raise won’t fix. But it will make it a bit easier to stay at school until 8pm some nights to prep for the next day while my family is at home. Or afford the insurance and day care that almost my whole paycheck goes to pay for. Yes, we “only work 10 months,” but those 10 months are mentally and emotionally draining. We carry the weight of the future of our society on our shoulders. There are no other careers without teachers. We dont do it for the 50k that none of us make, we do it because we love our kids.
Common Sense: why would the House not support our teachers? Thankful for the Senate!
The house is looking to shift more education funding responsibility back to the state. This would help landowners get some property tax relief while also getting more funding for education. The senate just wants to give a two year handout to teachers and kick the can down the road.
If you read SB 3, the 5000 raise in this bill is a permanent raise for teachers it is placed in statute in law so if it passes and it will take another law to remove it, so it is not kicking things down the road, it is creating a permanent raise of $5000 over local salary, using state dollars and given directly to the teachers without any administration locally. It is a good bill for teachers! . If you want to give $3 billion to school administrators, how much will make it to the teachers in the classroom? Not much.
The House is attempting to require the state to provide a greater percentage of education funding so school districts will not have to rely as much on local property taxes. This would allow school boards more freedom to allocate local property tax money as they deem necessary. That could mean teacher raises and property tax relief, but that is up to the local school boards to decide. This Senate bill does none of that and doesen’t solve any problems over the long term.
This bill doesn’t have a chance in the House and the Senate knows that.
Thank you Senator Kolkhorst for this bill. We in the teaching profession appreciate you! Now we will pray the State Representatives will PASS SB 3 and SHOW TEACHERS THE MONEY!
I pray that teachers will realize that this is a lazy attempt by politicians to buy their vote.