You probably heard that $5 billion was slashed from public education spending two years ago. Many teachers were laid off or felt forced into early retirement.
What you may not have heard is that many of the teachers who lost their jobs were re-hired before that summer ended.
Texas Watchdog evaluated nine of the largest school districts to see how many teaching jobs were truly lost after the budget cuts. Because many cuts were made due to normal attrition and retirement, a modest 5% of teaching jobs were lost, even after devastating budget cuts.
Good News
The Texas Legislature has already agreed to restore a minimum of $2.5 billion to education spending for 2013-2014. The Senate approved $3 billion so far, and although the house has only passed a preliminary budget including $2.5 billion being restored for education, some representatives have speculated that the House will agree to more money to be spent on education before the final budget is approved.
How does this affect you? If you are planning to become a teacher in Texas, or you already are one, you want to feel assured there will be teaching jobs available and you will have job security. Of course, no one can predict the future. However, the discussions in the legislature look promising, and it appears they are committed to restoring more than the currently promised $2.5 billion.
In addition, hundreds of school districts sued the state, citing inadequate and unfair funding. A district judge recently declared that in fact the education funding is unconstitutional, stating that there is not enough money for districts, and it is not distributed fairly.
It will be interesting to see what happens after the state appeals and it is tried in another court. What we do know is that districts have been incredibly efficient at maintaining as many teaching positions as possible.
Since student enrollment increases by about 80,000 students per year in the Lone Star State, it seems safe to say there will always be demand for teachers.
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