Texas Senate unanimously passes $5,000 teacher pay raises, adding librarians

[TexasTowelie]

by Aliyya Swaby and Cassandra Pollock, Texas Tribune


The Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that would provide $5,000 annual pay raises for full-time classroom teachers and librarians at a cost of $4 billion over the next two years.

Authored by the Senate's lead budget writer Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, Senate Bill 3 has been a priority of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick since he announced it at January's inauguration. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott declared teacher pay an emergency item at his State of the State speech last month, allowing lawmakers to move more quickly to get related bills through the legislative process.

SB 3 is the first bill addressing an emergency item to be passed out of either chamber. Every member of the Senate signed onto the bill as co-author.

"We know that teachers are dipping into their own personal funds to pay for classroom supplies. Our teachers are struggling financially," said Nelson, laying out the bill Monday. "The one thing we need to do first and foremost is to recognize the need to uplift our whole teaching profession."

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/04/texas-senate-passes-5000-teacher-pay-raises-adding-librarians/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Good.

I don't happen to live in Texas, but I totally support pay raises for teachers.

I live in New Mexico, and a couple of weeks ago I mailed in my ballot for a school tech funding. First ever mail in ballot in this state, so it will be quite interesting to see the results. I voted for, if that matters. But then, I always vote for school funding.

I have zero patience with the "It was good enough for me back then, why do the kids need something new?" mindset. Times change. Technology changes. Just because I did just fine without modern technology (and I did, make no mistake) doesn't mean an update in technology isn't appropriate now.