BY HALEY VELASCO
What else?
What’s next
Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding that Texas public schools received in 2020 and 2021 to help districts address pandemic-related learning loss also expires in September, according to the Texas School Alliance. There has also now been a rise in uncerti ed teachers becoming employed in school districts, according to the TEA. The percentages of uncer- ti ed teachers newly hired by CCISD surged by nearly 12 percentage points from 2020-23, TEA data shows. Moses veri ed this and said there are more applicants who were not “traditionally trained through a university program.” Individuals in di erent professions who now want to teach, as well as fewer colleges o ering education degrees and unpaid student-teacher programs, could be the root causes of the rise in uncerti ed applicants, Moses said.
Bob Popinski, the senior policy director for Raise Your Hand Texas, an education policy nonpro t, said while retaining certi ed teachers has become a prevalent challenge for the state, he believes the main reason for teacher shortages right now is low pay. He said a “driving force” to low pay for teachers is in ation increasing about 22% since 2019, and it’s di cult for districts to provide salary increases while having to pay for other items, such as electricity and food costs for students. The state of Texas has not raised student allot- ment funding for school districts, which is $6,160 per student, since 2019, according to a 2023 news release from Raise Your Hand Texas. This has led Texas school districts to head into budget short- falls, including CCISD, which in July projected a potential $4 million shortfall for its 2024-25 scal year, district documents show. The Elementary and Secondary School
Institutions, such as San Jacinto College in Pasadena, are looking to help bring more teachers into the profession. San Jacinto College launched in spring 2024 its second bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in early childhood education, college o cials said. Meanwhile, education advocates are hoping the next state legislative session, which begins Jan. 14, includes passing solutions recommended in the Teacher Vacancy Task Force, which was created in 2022. The task force is composed of teachers and school system leaders in public education across Texas. It proposed eight solutions for the Texas Legislature to consider in 2023 that revolved around increasing compensation, providing more support and training for new teachers, and helping teachers balance their time. Just one of the solutions passed during the 2023 session. Public education advocates such as Cave and Popinski said they believe passing the task force’s recommendations could help lessen the state’s teacher shortage. “Resources are not being allocated fairly to districts to help them with mitigating the shortage,” Cave said. “I wish that we would treat our teachers like the professionals that they are, and trust their word and allow them to do the good work that they do.”
New hires without a Texas teacher certi cation or permit Clear Creek ISD Friendswood ISD
Teacher base pay
Clear Creek ISD Friendswood ISD
Dickinson ISD
Pearland ISD Region 4
Pearland ISD Dickinson ISD
$70K
40%
35.4%
30%
$65K
$67,182 $66,418 $66,084 $63,970 $63,917
20%
15%
$60K
10%
3.37% 13.2%
$55K
$0
0%
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
21
BAY AREA EDITION
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