The new poll from the Charles Butt Foundation in San Antonio mentions a laundry list of woes including low pay and a lack of support. That same poll in 2020 showed 58% of Texas teachers thought about leaving.
In another sign of how the number is rising, the Texas State Teachers Association commissioned their own poll at the end of the last school year and it showed 70 percent were thinking about a career change. The TSTA's Clay Robison says it was a rough year for teachers. "It's been building, it's been building and it's finally hitting the point where it's a breaking point for many of them."
He says Texas teachers are paid about $7,500 below the national average. There is also lingering stress from the pandemic. In January when Omicron was spiking a lot of teachers and students got sick. "A lot of them had to stay home and teachers were doubling up on classes. Governor Greg Abbott forbade school districts from issuing mask mandates. That also upset many teachers."
Robison says politics is also to blame. Last legislative session the state legislature passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of so-called Critical Race Theory. "Critical Race Theory is not taught in Texas public schools. It was meddling in public education because it restricted what teachers could teach about controversial subjects. Earlier this year the governor started alleging there was pornography in Texas public schools, which there isn't. When teachers are already underpaid, their healthcare benefits and retirement are inadequate, and then they start taking political attacks from the governor. There's only so much they can take and many finally hit the breaking point."
The poll also showed that 17 percent of teachers "feel valued by Texans overall. That number was 44 percent two years ago." Only five percent say they feel valued by Texas lawmakers.
Robison says teachers love teaching and suspects many will not quit.
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