HOUSTON — Every classroom teacher in Texas is one step closer to getting a big raise starting in the upcoming school year.
About 350,000 teachers would qualify for a $5,000 raise if Senate Bill 3, which a Texas Senate committee advanced on Monday, becomes law.
The big question now: will it ultimately pass, and where will the state find the roughly $1.8 billion per year to cover the cost?
Texas teacher pay lags the national average by more than $7,000. Increasing it is one of Governor Abbott’s top priorities during the 2019 session, but how that raise could ultimately be doled out and paid for isn’t as clear.
Christopher Williams’ 12 years at Houston ISD has never been about the money.
“It’s very, very rewarding,” said Williams, a high school history teacher.
But while helping open doors for his students’ future, Williams has also spent almost a decade working 15 to 20 hours a week extra at a local bookstore.
“As my student loan payments rose, as the cost of living in Houston has gone up,” said Williams. “It essentially became necessary.”
He’s among the estimated 39 percent of Texas teachers working extra jobs who are hoping for some help.
“I’m optimistic that the bill will pass,” said Williams. “I think that it will go a long way to keeping really good teachers in the classroom.”
Senate Bill 3 cleared the committee on Monday unanimously. It would give every full-time classroom teacher, including those at charter schools, an across-the-board pay raise. It would also block school districts from lowering teachers’ salaries to make up for the higher cost.
On the KHOU Facebook page, many viewers support teacher raises, though some want support staff to get paid more too.
“I really think there’s a real question of where this money’s gonna come from,” said Bob Stein, a Rice University political science professor and KHOU political analyst.
Especially, says Stein, when Governor Greg Abbott wants caps on property tax revenue and prefers merit-based pay raises for teachers.
“(Gov. Abbott) could easily say, ‘School districts that are willing to give the pay raise out on merit, they’ll get our money,’” said Stein.
In the end, Williams hopes the money will be paid to teachers across the board on an issue he says transcends partisan politics.
“If we don’t have the kind of quality teachers on our campuses, then the whole state’s gonna suffer,” he said.
Zeph Capo, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, called the bill “a step in the right direction” but says the narrow definition of ‘classroom teachers’ excludes speech pathologists, specialists, librarians, counselors, bus drivers, and other support staff.
“The entire rest of the team is left out, and that’s a huge problem,” said Capo.
Capo also says the “lowball figure” is nowhere near what is being offered by the Texas House of Representatives, which will vote on SB 3 if it clears the full Senate.