TEA releases vacancy recommendations

Fast Growth School Coalition responds

HAYS COUNTY — A statewide survey by the Charles Butt Foundation last year found that 77% of Texas public school teachers have seriously considered leaving the profession, which is 19 percentage points higher than two years ago.

The foundation also found 81% of Texas teachers say that their pay is unfair, causing 41% to work an additional job out of financial need. Nearly all Texas teachers (98%) spent their own money on classroom supplies and 75% spent their money on supporting their students’ needs. Also, the share of Texas teachers who feel valued in their profession overall has dropped from 44% two years ago to 17% now.

The Teacher Vacancy Task Force (TVTF) was established in March 2022 by Gov. Greg Abbott to examine teacher retention and recruitment challenges across the state. During the past year, the task force met every other month with the objectives of understanding the challenges school systems are facing related to teacher vacancies and developing recommendations for regulatory or other policy changes for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the legislature.

TEA released the February 2023 TVTF final report called "Developing a Thriving Teacher Workforce in Texas" that outlines recommendations focused on teacher support in key areas such as compensation, training, support and working conditions. The TVTF said that the recommendations should not only be offered as options for school districts but also that additional funding be allocated at the necessary level.

Greg Smith of the Fast Growth School Coalition has witnessed firsthand the process of schools recruiting and retaining teachers as a former superintendent of Clear Creek ISD.

“It’s in my blood in terms of helping superintendents with their growth and trying to create solutions for them to consider as they move forward in trying to manage growth in their respective school districts,” Smith said. “I feel their joy and I feel their pain.”

He added that the discussion about teacher vacancies in Texas should have been held sooner.

“My only concern is that this conversation should have been held about four years ago when we saw the pipeline for teaching was drying up,” Smith said. “They are attacking it from a good standpoint. This is not just a legislative problem. This is everybody’s problem.”

The Fast Growth School Coalition is a collective voice that educates and advocates for investment in about 70 of the school districts in the state, including Hays CISD and Dripping Springs ISD. To be a member of the coalition, Smith said that a school district has to have at least 2,500 students and grow by at least 10% over the last five years or a net increase of 3,500 or more students.

The TVTF report can be found at www.tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/tvtf-final-report.pdf