Rebecca Aguilar has put her entire life into her career as a bilingual teacher over the last 18 years.
She’s bought materials for class projects, provided shoes and clothes for students when they needed them and advocated for parents to ensure they had access to bilingual translators during district programs and events.
Despite her commitment and her experience, however, Aguilar has seen few substantial raises over the course of her career, which brought her to the Judson Independent School District in 2009.
“It changed when I came here, but really there hasn’t been much,” she said, referring to her income.
Now, as the state Legislature considers how to spend a $32.7 billion budget surplus, Aguilar and other teachers are demanding better wages.
Hundreds of educators and school employees gathered in Austin on Monday to share the impact of stagnating wages, which have slid backwards over the last decade when taking inflation into account.
That’s according to an analysis by the Texas American Federation of Teachers and the nonpartisan think tank Every Texan released last year that found that after adjusting for inflation, teachers make 4% less on average than they did in 2010 — with others making upwards of 12% less.
That loss is having a real impact.
Aguilar said she has been unable to afford the high cost of inhalers, necessary to treat her asthma.
She has resorted to having friends get the needed treatments in Mexico, where they are more affordable.
A proposal by AFT, a statewide union representing more than 65,000 public school employees, seeks 10% raises for all teachers as part of any legislative agenda moving forward.
The same study by Every Texan and AFT found that despite modest increases, wages adjusted for inflation are even worse for auxiliary employees, such as child nutrition workers and custodians. Average base pay for these paraprofessional and auxiliary staff is less than half that of professional staff, according to the study.
The AFT proposal calls for a 15% raise for these two groups. That would change the lives of workers like Fressy Molina, a custodian in Judson ISD who lives paycheck to paycheck supporting her elderly mother, according to the report.
“Don’t leave us behind,” she said. “A raise of 15% would help me very much to take care of my mom.
“To also be able to enjoy a weekend with something extra — go out to dinner, to the movie,” she added. “Not like we are right now, that we’re only working for the bills.”
Pearl West, a child nutrition manager at Northside Independent School District, spoke in Austin recently about her struggles. She works at the same elementary school she attended, her mother attended and her daughter now attends.
Despite being in that role for six years, her gross pay last year was still just over $20,000, she said.
“Not a lot of people realize what dire straits we are in just trying to make ends meet,” she said.
School districts have broken from previous norms, such as setting a budget once each year for the next school year. Superintendent Brian Woods of the Northside Independent School District said the school board met more often to authorize raises for auxiliary employees to remain competitive.
“When you can go to Bill Miller’s or something else and earn $15, $16, $17 an hour, that’s gonna be tough for us to compete with,” he said. “We’re a public entity, and we only have so many dollars.”
But those raises aren’t enough, according to advocates.
Zeph Capo, the president of Texas AFT, said during a press conference Wednesday that there is a need for sustainable changes to be made.
“We’ve got to do something that stems this crisis,” Capo said.
“Too many of the bills in our state are focused on increasing the size of the pipeline to the point of actually dropping the standards so low that you don’t have to have a degree to be in a classroom,” he said. “Get the attention off of the pipeline. Because frankly, in the scheme of matters, it is cheaper and easier to focus on pipeline. And it gives you a way out rather than doing the hard work of digging in and making the corrective decisions that are going to retain the current staff.” he said.
The raises proposed by the union are part of a wide-ranging $33 billion plan called Fully Funded & Fully Respected.
In addition to raises, the plan asks legislators to fully fund counselors and social workers, hire a nurse for every school and to close loopholes that allow large class sizes, among other investments.
To pay for those changes, the organization is asking lawmakers to tweak how schools are funded.
Currently, school funding is based on average daily attendance, meaning schools don’t receive funding for students on days they are not in school.
Texas is one of six states that still fund schools this way, with most states transitioning to a system that provides funds based on enrollment instead.
Chandra Villanueva, the director of policy and advocacy for Every Texan, said at a press conference Wednesday that research has shown no connection between enrollment-based funding and attendance rates.
“There is really no evidence that attendance-based funding actually compels kids to attend, or changes anything to do with attendance rates,” she said.
Illinois, which is the most recent state to shift to enrollment-based funding, has 95% enrollment, she said.
When a student doesn’t show up for school under the current system, the district doesn’t receive funds for that student, but still has to pay the teacher, electric bill and other operating costs.
Several bills have been proposed to make the change to attendance-based enrollment.
The current system is also costing districts more than before the pandemic, with lower attendance rates translating to lower funding. Combined with enrollment declines, this has pushed some districts into steep deficits including Harlandale and South San Antonio ISDs, which are both considering school closures as a result.
The proposal also calls for an increase in the basic allotment.
“The basic allotment is the per-student funding amount that we give our schools,” Villanueva said. “It is a completely arbitrary number that is not based on anything at all. There is no cost into it, there’s no reasoning, it is a number completely pulled out of thin air by the Legislature and that’s what our schools are told they should be able to educate our kids with.”
Another key to funding the agenda, advocates said, is to stop proposals for tax dollars to be sent to private or charter schools. Several bills to send tax dollars to private schools have been proposed so far this session, and Gov. Greg Abbott has been a strong proponent of such policies.
Teachers are also calling on district leaders locally to provide raises.
San Antonio ISD teachers and employees are planning to gather with their local union for a rally on Tuesday to call for raises. Current pay scales only offer about $6,000 in raises from year one to year 20.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino talked to the San Antonio Report about the issue in February. He said the pay scale was similar to other districts in the region, adding that he has hope that changes will be made in the Legislature.
“How could it be that we are not valuing our teachers and our public schools (when) a teacher is the one to prepare you, prepare me, everybody, everything,” he said.
Aquino said a teacher recently told him she was retiring early despite loving her job.
“I need to start collecting my pension,” he recalled her saying.
She is not the only one.
In November 2021, the Texas AFT surveyed its members. In that survey, 66% of teachers and school staff who responded said they had seriously considered leaving their jobs in the past year.
That was echoed in various surveys and polls of educators, including a nationwide study by the Rand Corporation.
“Something has to change,” Aquino said. “If not, we’re gonna lose another generation of students and I’m gonna lose a generation of teachers.”
