Texas education experts say stronger prep, higher pay key to solving teacher shortage

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As Texas faces a major shortage of certified teachers and an increasing number of uncertified educators are working in public schools, teachers and education experts at a Texas Tribune event Tuesday said lack of training and support is what drives teachers out of the profession.

“Teaching is a really hard job that requires skill, skills that are learned over time, and so if you're throwing someone unprepared in there, they are very unlikely to stay in the classroom,” Ryan Franklin, managing director of policy and advocacy at Philanthropy Advocates, said at the event at Raise Your Hand Texas in Austin.

Jean Streepey, board chair at the State Board of Education Certification, pointed out that while certification is generally required to become a teacher in Texas, there are limited exceptions, particularly for high school courses in career and technical education.

“Maybe they're an architect or welder, or another career tech education field, Streepey said. “And so that's a different thought process than, are they teaching my second grader to read?”

Teacher pay was another major point of discussion. Cara Malone, chief of schools for Hutto ISD, said that while many teachers are motivated by their commitment to students, fair compensation is still essential.

“I would say the majority of your teachers are motivated by service, not by pay,” Malone said. “But that doesn't mean they don't need to be paid for what they do. If we want this to be a profession, then we need to pay.”

Staci Childs, a member of the Texas State Board of Education, said that significantly higher salaries could attract more top-performing people to the profession.

“If we were paying teachers $100,000 per year, do you think that we would have as much of a shortage as we have now? I don't think we would,” Childs said. “So, whoever hears this, Gov. Greg Abbott, I hope you hear this. Please, let us pay our teachers $100,000 per year or more.”

Bob Anderson, chief of human resources services in Klein ISD, added that the public and media often overlook the value of teachers, contributing to the demotivation of educators.

“The story is always negative about teaching. Turn on the news. It's never positive about teaching,” Anderson said. “You don't have this conversation with doctors and lawyers. Teachers are just as valuable to our system as doctors and lawyers. They train the next doctors and lawyers.”

When it comes to making students feel comfortable in the classroom, the importance of representation and cultural sensitivity also came up during the discussion. Experts said schools should hire professionals from diverse backgrounds to reflect students’ identities and make them feel understood.

Kadence Carter, a student advocate with Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, shared how meaningful it was for him as a student to have a teacher who came from a similar background.

“That made a lot of the students there feel seen, like their teacher understood them, like their teacher understood where they were from and who they are,” Carter said.

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