When she first began teaching 13 years ago, Katrina Rasmussen, a studio art teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in the Dallas Independent School District, sai
Protesters hold signs and chant during a rally against school vouchers at the Texas Capitol on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds gathered to protest two days before a special lawmaking session on vouchers and other topics, slated to begin Monday.
Texas teachers — whose average salaries are $7,652 less than the national average, according to the National Education Association — were the only state employees who didn’t receive a raise during this year’s regular legislative session. “If it comes down to it, and it’s vouchers or being able to stay in the job that I care about — unfortunately, I'm gonna have to leave,” Rasmussen said. “That’s not a compromise that I can make values-wise.”Many teachers disagree with the idea of using taxpayer dollars to fund private education — and potentially diverting funding from public schools.
The basic allotment — the amount of money the state gives school for each student — was last raised in 2020 to $6,160. Public school advocates say that amount has not kept up with inflation. “With choices come the responsibilities of choices, meaning if you choose to put your child in a private school, then it's your job and your choice to pay for that education,” Forbis said. “I don't feel like taxpayers' money, which is supposed to pay for public schools, should go to parents who are choosing to put their children in other private or charter schools because our schools already are underfunded.
Education savings accounts, the voucher program championed by Abbott, would give families who exit the state’s public education system access to a certain amount of state money to pay for private school tuition, home-schooling costs or other educational expenses. Senate Bill 8, introduced by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, was the primary savings account proposal on the table during the regular session and would have given families up to $8,000 per student.
But as a former special education teacher, Borrego said she particularly worries that, unlike public schools, private schools are not required by law to provide certain educational services to children with disabilities. When students switch into her district’s public schools mid-year, Borrego said, it is often because they have special needs or behavioral issues that are not being adequately addressed at private schools.
Jerrica Liggins, secondary curriculum director for Paris ISD, said she fields questions from teachers at almost every meeting about salary raises. After state funding for teacher raises fell through during the regular session over the vouchers debate, Paris ISD offered teachers a 3% raise earlier this year and went into a deficit budget.
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