SUPPORT TEXAS TEACHERS

“This is going to be my last year,” my English teacher told us as we finished our final. As a high school student, “last year” is a phrase I’ve heard over and over throughout the year. Teachers, from kindergarten to high school, seem more likely to leave than ever before. To our class, our English teacher leaving was a personal blow—she was one of the best teachers we’d ever had, and her leaving meant next year’s class was temporarily without a teacher.

Unfortunately, my high school isn’t an isolated case. Texas public schools are struggling to keep teachers in school, with educators quitting in droves. It’s gotten so bad that 77% of Texas teachers have considered “seriously leaving the profession” last school year, according to a survey by the Charles Butt Foundation. 

Different schools have pointed to different explanations for their dwindling retention rate, but two reasons stick out:

• Increased responsibilities and a lack of compensation. Besides our legislature failing to pass even the most modest of pay raises, teachers are being held accountable for things outside their job description. Along with their classes, they’re having to fill in for counselors and sub for other teachers.

The exodus of teachers means different things for different students. For students in Houston or Dallas, it means even fewer teachers for diverse student bodies numbering in the hundreds of thousands. For rural students, it means fewer programs. For elementary school students—our youngest and most in need of attention—it means larger class sizes and less guidance.

Until we can address our teacher problem, Texas students will struggle with a lower-quality education. Teacher retention, layered of an issue as it is, deserves our attention.

By not addressing the way we treat our teachers, we cheat our students and jeopardize our future.