SAN ANTONIO — When the Texas Legislature came back into session at the beginning of 2023, school districts and teacher unions were eagerly awaiting a teacher pay increase.
By a few months later, they were disappointed. The legislature had a $50 billion dollar surplus to work with, but a pay increase was never passed.
Now teacher pay is a main objective in the legislature's third special session of the year, along with school vouchers. Senate Bill 2 will provide a pay increase if passed.
At the same time, teacher unions worry the SB2 will inevitably be used as leverage for the Senate's voucher program proposed via Senate Bill 1.
What will teachers get?
SB 2 increases teacher pay in three different ways.
First, it increases the basic allotment that every public school district gets per student, from $6,160 to $6,235. This may only be a $75 dollar difference per student, but it adds up for larger Texas districts, some of which service more than 100,000 students.
Second, the bill creates a Teacher Retention Allotment for the 2024-2025 school year, as well as a one-time bonus payment for the current year.
In both cases, teachers in districts with more than 5,000 students would receive an additional $3,000 per year, while teachers in districts with 5,000 students or fewer would get an additional $10,000.
Senator Brandon Creighton categorized the decision to provide more funds to smaller districts by saying those teachers are often paid less.
"It's designed to take a teacher that's making in the 30s ($30,000 range) and give him or her a fighting chance to stay in the profession in that small school district and raise them up in the 40s," Creighton said.
Lastly, SB 2 would increase the amount of additional money teachers can get though the Teacher Incentive Allotment Designation initiative. This is only available to teachers if their school district establishes local rules for the program, so not all teachers can take advantage.
The program pays teachers a stipend if them achieve a certain designation, which is based partially based on test scores.
Teacher unions remain wary
While teacher pay (SB 2) is not currently tied to the Senate's voucher program (SB 1), teacher unions still remember how the Senate tied their voucher program to a school district funding bill at the end of the 2023 legislative session in a last-ditch effort to pass vouchers.
On Monday, Creighton insisted that the teacher pay increase is "not connected" to vouchers when he testified at the Senate Committee on Finance.
Northside AFT President Wanda Longoria was not convinced.
"This is not a goodwill effort to pay teachers more. This is a trade bill to get those who voted against vouchers to come on board," Longoria said. "At the end of the day, that's what this is all about."
Some Texas Republicans from rural districts are still fighting against vouchers because of the impact they could have on their local school. Longoria told KENS 5 the choice to pay smaller districts more is an attempt to get those districts on-board.
"It was meant to bring in rural legislators that have stood in solidarity against vouchers and voted against vouchers," Longoria said.
San Antonio Alliance Vice President Adrian Reyna said a $3,000 pay raise is better than nothing, but added school districts could simultaneously lose funding if a voucher plan passes, as they would lose dollars attached to students.
"There is no amount of increase to the basic allotment or to salaries that will suffice to have vouchers in our state. We know that may, this year, be $3,000 or $10,000, but we know that over the course of time vouchers are going to siphon more money out of public education than anything else the state has decided to do... so we can't agree to it."
Both SB 1 and SB 2 could be considered on the floor of the Senate when it reconvenes Thursday morning.
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