AUSTIN (Nexstar) – On Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 26 with a unanimous vote to raise teacher pay across the state. The bill will now move to the Texas House of Representatives for consideration.
If passed by the House, the legislation would fulfill one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s seven emergency items for the 89th Legislative Session – increasing teacher pay to an all-time high.
According to the bill’s sponsor Brandon Creighton, R – Conroe, 80% of the new money distributed to school districts will go straight for across-the-board pay increases, with extra funding for rural districts (under 5,000 students). The other 20% goes towards increasing the Teacher Incentive Allotment program, a program which has had its enrollment doubled in the last two years, Creighton says.
“If we want to attract and maintain the best educators, we need Texas to be the best place to teach,” Creighton said on the Senate floor.
There are also teacher retention programs, encouraged to convince teachers to invest time in the public education system. School districts will be given extra money for every teacher who has three years under their belt, and even more money for each teacher who has five years of experience.
“This will ensure that they don’t just start strong,” Creighton said, “but they stay strong throughout their career.”
The bill also grants free Pre-K programs for the children of public school teachers, and grants liability insurance for teachers who are accused of misconduct by a third party (not law enforcement) while teaching.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said this legislation will make the salary of an average teacher with five or more years of experience rise to $69,000, as opposed to $54,000 in 2019. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has caused $54,000 in Jan. 2019 to be equivalent to $68,150.24 in Jan. 2025.
Immediately before the vote, Creighton told senators he plans to file another bill tomorrow to cover some of the biggest challenges teachers face, calling it the next step in his ‘Teacher Bill of Rights.’
