School principals across the more than one thousand independent school districts in Texas will have a tough time hiring quality teachers next year. The Texas...
It doesn’t take an AP Economics student to explain why demand for high-quality teachers is so high. There isn’t enough supply. The biggest problem is pay. Today you can makeor 39% more than a new teacher in Dallas ISD. The technician job does not require a degree — only a one-year certificate from Dallas College. Benefits include not facing disruptive students, not tracking down hard-to-reach parents, and, of course, not finding yourself in the center of a politically charged culture war.
A dedicated teacher works from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an additional 15 hours per week spent grading, planning lessons, and attending school events. This adds up to working about 2,600 hours per year for a wage of $23 per hour. The irony? The more devoted teachers are to student success, the less money they make per hour.
As a principal heading into hiring season, I worry. I worry that my students will suffer because I can’t find a great teacher to put in front of them. I worry that the vacancies last year will be even higher this year — and higher still in 2024. Why? Because the Legislature is doing nothing to address the problem.
In fact, the Legislature is poised to make it worse. We have a public school funding crisis — and a record $32.7 billion budget surplus. Instead of using some of these dollars to raise teacher salaries and alleviate campus vacancies in our ISDs, legislators are actually planning to undercut our public schools — by sending taxpayer money to private schools in the form of vouchers. Or, as it’s being branded, “Education Savings Accounts.
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