Texas AFT member Rebekah Ozuna (left) testifies late in the evening at the Joint Committee hearing.

This Tuesday, the House Committee on Public Education and the House Committee on Higher Education held joint hearings to discuss solutions to the teacher retention crisis. The marathon hearings he lasted 12 hours and included a panel of 14 invited testimonies discussing teacher recruitment pipelines, retirement benefits, eligibility requirements, and compensation.

The hearing was specifically convened to address the impact the pandemic has had on teacher retention and recruitment. But the seeds of the teacher retention crisis in Texas and the country were planted long before COVID-19, even though the pandemic has certainly exacerbated many problems, both by invitation and public testimony. It soon became clear.

Among the witnesses invited were representatives from the Texas Education Authority (TEA), the State Board of Educator Accreditation, and the state’s own Teacher Vacancies Task Force. Three main challenges dominated the conversation.

• compensation
• Working conditions
• quality of teacher preparation

Several panels discussed the “teacher salary penalty”, the fact that teachers are paid significantly less than similarly educated professionals working in other fields. The teacher’s wage penalty will be raised to 23.5% in 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Committee members agreed that this penalty would discourage people from becoming educators.

Commission members, including Rep. Diego Bernal, noted that the various restrictions and requirements that states impose on teachers are also discouraging many from becoming educators. Bernal specifically cited laws that restrict sex and gender education, target LGBTQIA+ students and their families, and overemphasize STAAR exams, among the many undue burdens placed on teachers. rice field.

Jolisa Huber, a teacher specialist representing the educational nonprofit Raise Your Hands of Texas (RYHT), said a recent RYHT survey found that 77% of teachers in Texas are seriously considering leaving their profession. testified that it shows Hoover called the figure a “broken dream tally” of all those who entered the field excited to pursue a career in education.

After hours of invitational testimony, the commission began accepting public testimony late at night. The committee hearing took place on a school day so few active classroom teachers were able to testify, but two of his AFT members from Texas were not in the classroom so they could have their voices heard. I’ve been waiting to hear from you.

Rebekah Ozuna, a grants expert at Austin ISD who previously taught at the San Antonio ISD, testified that various factors pushed her out of the classroom, including a high student-teacher ratio and inadequate resources and support. Did. Dixie Ross, a retired nationally recognized teacher at the Pflugerville ISD who now works as a deputy to help ease the burden of teacher vacancies, said the lack of respect educators received drove them out of the classroom. I testified that

Texas AFT Government Relations Specialist Alejandro Peña also testified on the importance of respecting educators. Peña shared data collected by Texas AFT. This points to compensation and working conditions as the main factors driving teachers out of the classroom.

This is expected to be the last interim hearing for the House Committee on Public Education before the 2023 session begins. Texas AFT will continue to meet with legislators and their staff to ensure they have access to the valuable research we have conducted with AFT over the past year.

You can read Ozuna’s testimony below, as well as a written statement from Northside AFT President Wanda Longoria, who was unable to attend the lengthy hearing in Austin.

Rebekah Ozuna: Testifying before the House Public Education Committee and the House Higher Education Committee

Delivered on September 20, 2022

Hello, my name is Rebecca Ozuna. I was a pre-special education teacher at San Antonio ISD for nine years. I left the classroom in the spring of 2020.

While teaching, I suffered a large amount of secondary trauma. My students went through homelessness, food shortages, chronic illnesses, mental health breakdowns, PTSD, numerous his ACEs, all becoming unbearable to my heart.

When I moved to Austin, I made the difficult decision to quit being a classroom teacher. I stayed in teaching, but it was very difficult for me to quit teaching.

Expanding the learning environment beyond the walls of the classroom; reducing class sizes; increasing one-on-one time with students to get to know them; setting high expectations for all students; For example, helping students understand lessons that you have co-created with them according to their interests. himself in the classroom.

Instead, we continue to feel the effects of the pandemic, including high turnover and early retirement, staffing shortages leading to larger class sizes, political polarization over educational practices, and continued inequity in public schools. We must build community capacity to support, reach out and teach all children together.

Last but not least, you will hear many stories after me. Educators trust you by sharing our personal experience of what’s really happening in our school. It is a reflection of our soul. Take our story seriously today. Subsequent results will reflect your results. Thank you very much.

Wanda Longoria: Planned testimony to the House Public Education Committee and House Higher Education Committee

Written on September 20, 2022

As a retired educator who worked as a classroom teacher for 36 years and enjoyed every moment of teaching students, I have to say the same is not true for other elements of my job.

When I started teaching in 1983, most of our time was spent planning lessons, working in teams to create engaging and interactive project-based learning, planning student-led meetings, and It was spent on how to work with parents to help students. House. There was also after school homework for the students, but that was about once a week for him, certainly not excessive. I love all aspects of teaching and am determined to make it my purposeful career.

By the time I retired, the work was becoming unbearable. We are moving away from that classroom-centric model to include more paperwork, more mandated administrative weekly meetings, more TEA mandated training, more mandates, more workdays, more school days. Students are now monitored before, during, and during tax-free lunches.

With more after-school events being mandated on campus, more stress on testing by school districts and governments, more pressure to tutor for free two or three times a week or more, and fewer people attending ARD and during meeting hours. 504 meetings and staffing were held as before. Respond to hundreds of parent emails within 24 hours after school, hold weekly professional learning community meetings 1-3 times a week during conferences, and discuss student academic and behavioral goals, as well as various formats must document their progress in an electronic database. We replicated our work, followed up with parents on attendance issues, and addressed extended school days for interventions, but campus administrators and district officials ensured respect for resources and time. You did not support us regarding

Fighting abuse to steal meeting time and tax-free lunches has also been a constant struggle that takes debilitating and time-consuming work.

Over the past decade of education this progress has gotten worse and when I retired it was truly unsustainable. Even exemplary teachers with years of valuable experience succumbed to the pressure. I knew We’ve seen the classroom drift away from what really matters. In other words, informal assessment and improvement tracking gives teachers the time and energy to teach engaging, interactive lessons. And being away from the core of our work and passions has led to demoralization for teachers and students.

What needs to change? Give teachers and public school employees the dignity and respect they deserve. Give them the tools and the ability to make the best decisions for their students. Give voice to district policy and respect autonomy. Let their creativity flourish, support them, and help them understand that teachers are not machines. We are people who love to “teach”. Let me teach you!

Provide sufficient funding for education so that school districts can hire more people to support them at the campus level. Campus can:
— Protecting teachers during ARD
— Hire an outside tutor to assist with the intervention
— Hire more reading and math experts to ensure students get the right one-on-one tutoring
— Hire teaching assistants to help students with special needs reach their goals
— Hire social workers to meet the needs of students and parents
School districts need funding to implement programs that provide wraparound services to students and parents, and this is not possible without adequate funding. Our state expects teachers to do everything, which is simply not possible.

This has to change.

This change begins with full funding for public schools, teacher-friendly TEA policies and guidelines, and administrators making work environments more sustainable and supportive. Without this, the bleeding would continue and our children would suffer tremendously because of it, and eventually so would our society.