As lawmakers wait for committee assignments to be handed down, bills are still being filed this legislative session.
This week, Round Rock Democrat James Talarico plans to file a bill to raise teacher salaries amid an ongoing teacher shortage.
, who reports on the Capitol for the Texas Newsroom, said that while details are still to come on the bill, Talarico introduced a similar piece of legislation in 2021.
鈥淭his is something important for Representative Talarico,鈥� said Mart铆nez-Beltr谩n, noting the lawmaker is a former educator. 鈥淚n 2021, he introduced a bill that would have made the minimum salary for teachers to be $70,000, but that didn鈥檛 go anywhere. But I think, again, we might see similar efforts by others to try to get teachers raises.鈥�
The average starting pay for teachers in Texas is a little more than $29,000 a year statewide.
Mart铆nez-Beltr谩n said that in , lawmakers noted their intention to increase funding for public and charter schools.
鈥淪ome of the possible strategies include allocating money to raise the salaries and benefits of teachers. But again, that鈥檚 just a possibility. Anything can happen. There鈥檚 not a lot of details yet,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e talked to education advocates who have talked about how the Legislature should also consider increasing the basic allotment, which is the per-pupil funding. That formula has remained unchanged since 2019. Inflation is a real thing, and experts say that increasing that basic allotment would actually give automatic pay raises to teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors.鈥�
Mart铆nez-Beltr谩n said education funding is only one priority for the state鈥檚 . Other priorities include reducing property taxes and putting money toward school safety.
鈥淲e are seeing that school safety is arguably one of the areas that the Legislature would like to spend some money on,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or example, the budget draft allocates $600 million to the Texas Education Agency to help school districts in implementing school safety initiatives. Also, the Legislature has vowed, based on this budget draft, to increase public education funding.鈥�
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