Teachers Making A Difference Issue 3 What is House Bill 3?

by Dr. Cathy Coker

In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature overhauled the school finance system as part of House Bill 3 (HB 3).

The Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) is a key part of House Bill 3, dedicated to recruiting, supporting, and retaining highly effective teachers in all schools, with particular emphasis on high-needs and rural schools.

That is not how this allotment is being used. Why do we have to prove ourselves to get better pay? HB 3, is a Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) that was established with a stated goal of a six-figure salary for teachers. TIA allotment funds help Texas school systems reward, retain and recruit highly effective teachers.

This is only part of how we qualify for this allotment.

• Districts will determine how to measure a teacher’s impact on student performance.

• Districts could consider using measures such as pre- and post-tests, value-added measures, portfolios, and student learning objectives, or other standardized test results.

• Guidance on Student Growth in T-TESS provides a description of suggested student growth measures.

I am a teacher. I deserve to be paid fairly for the hours I work. I deserve learning materials and resources to be provided for the students and for me to do my job. I deserve to have a safe working environment. I’d love to get paid more. Yes, I believe we should get paid more but not make us jump through hoops. This just causes competition amongst teachers because realistically we are competing against each other to be better than our colleagues.

Teachers empower people to unlock their potential. People become teachers because they love learning, they love kids, because education is their passion, and because they believe in the power of education. I think most teachers would be happier with their piddly salaries if they had the unmitigated respect of students, parents, administrators, and politicians and if they were seen as valuable members of our nation, rather than the ones who get all the blame for every problem in society.

we’re willing to pay for what wevalue. So until we begin to value thecontributions teachers are making tonot only individual lives but also toour general society nothing is going

to change.

No allotment will improve the teacher’s attitude of being disrespected and unvalued by their administrators. The salaries of teachers suggest that we don’t value them very much. In fact, we pay more for the people who look after our money than we do the people who look after the education of our children. We expect teachers to have 100% success for measly pay, but we pay highly for a baseball player to hit the ball only 1/3 of the time! Yet we claim that our children are the most important things in our lives and in our futures.

Would higher salaries attract better teachers? Possibly. Good teachers who have left the profession have gone on to much higher-paying jobs. They might have stayed where they were making more money and respect for what they do. Teachers help raise your children, help raise our teacher salaries please.