Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that student mental health and behavioral issues, combined with smartphones in class, low teacher pay, and A.I. cheating has contributed to broad unhappiness among America’s teachers.
These problems are exacerbated by the learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic school closures and virtual lessons.
The report showed that from 2016 to 2024, the percentage of teachers who said the “stress and disappointments of the job are worth it” declined from 75% to 42%, now 21% below that of other college-educated workers.
Texas has not been spared.
According to a poll by the Charles Butt Foundation, “three-quarters of Texas teachers are seriously considering leaving their jobs.”
Research by Texas 2036 shows that teacher turnover in Texas had been “trending upwards” with 11.57% teachers leaving in the 2021/22 school year. In 2022-23, teacher attrition hit a historic high in Texas of more than 13 percent.
Hiring new teachers may be a challenge as well. According to the research, “since the 2011-12 school year, hiring has consistently exceeded prior-year attrition by large margins. However, for the 2021-22 school year, new hires only exceed prior-year attrition by 134 teachers” with total new hires being 42,973.
The issue of attrition is hitting some districts in Texas harder than others. According to research by Aaron Silva, a parent and school board candidate in Eanes ISD, Austin ISD teacher attrition exceeded 30% in 2023.
The adjacent, high performing school district of Eanes ISD, which Silva’s children attend, had teacher attrition that exceeded 20% in 2023. His proposal to recruit and retain the best teachers was to create a pay structure that would pay “the best and high performing Eanes teachers” $100,000 or more per year.
During the last special session, the teacher pay increases that were tied by Governor Greg Abbott to additional funding for public schools and education savings accounts, failed to move forward when the Texas House of Representatives removed the education savings account provision from the bill.
A report by the Texas Education Research Center recommended that school districts provide higher pay for teachers early in their career. The current salary ladder provides greater increases in later years. It also recommended providing incentives to teachers.
Although pay is the top issue, with 96% of teachers saying they need higher salaries, 94% say they need support in handling student discipline, autonomy in the classroom, and to be considered when setting school policies.
91% said they needed better management of non-instructional tasks and responsibilities given to teachers. And, 85% of teachers said they need a schedule that allows for more planning time.
During the interim, following the passage of HB1605, the Texas Education Agency released a state curriculum that all teachers in Texas can use. TEA believes this will reduce the workload and stress of developing effective lesson plans.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said that part of the goal of the open education resources was to provide a well-planned, high quality lesson plan for teachers so they did not have to spend as much time on nights and weekends preparing lesson plans for the week. He said it would help schools to have better outcomes in the classroom as well.
As far as smartphones in class, State Representative Ellen Troxclair HD-19 said she intends to follow a broader national trend of getting smartphones out of classrooms, and bring forward legislation during the 89th session.
