Bad News for Texas Teachers

More bad news for Texas teachers
Friday, February 22, 2013
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A few recent studies paint a mostly dismal picture for teachers in Texas and across the nation.

According to a recent National Education Association study, Texas’ per-pupil spending has fallen to about $8,500 — about $2,000 below the national average. (New York spends $17,746 per student.)

Nearly 5 million children attend public school in Texas — the second highest population in the country — but Texas has the largest instructional staff with 366,204 K-12 public school employees. Of those, 324,243 are teachers, data from the union said. That means there’s one teacher for every 14.7 students in Texas, compared to California’s abysmal ratio of 24:1...



Another study released this week by MetLife puts teacher job satisfaction at its lowest level in 25 years — just 39 percent, compared to 62 percent in 2008. Shrinking budgets, fewer professional development opportunities and less time for teacher collaboration were cited as reasons for the lack of satisfaction. More than half of teachers report feeling under great stress several days per week, as opposed to one-third in 1985.

“The survey’s findings underscore the responsibilities and challenges educators must address to ensure America’s young people are prepared to compete and collaborate in the global economy,” said Dennis White, vice president of corporate contributions for MetLife. “We hope the findings of this survey will help us all pose and address questions about school leadership that can turn challenges into opportunities for better student achievement.”

Locally, teachers are just as unhappy. The Houston Federation of Teachers released a survey this week that showed only 6 percent of HISD teachers consider the district’s new teacher evaluation system to be fair and objective. Seventy-six of the 1,269 respondents indicated that they felt the new evaluation instrument was being used for “retaliation and as a gotcha by the principals,” according to a statement from the teachers’ group...

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