WEEK IN REVIEW
SENATE SENDS TEACHER PAY RAISE BILL TO HOUSE
(AUSTIN) — The Texas Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to give teachers an across-the-board pay raise and guarantee raises for future teachers reaching their third and fifth years of service. Education Committee chair and Conroe Senator Brandon Creighton said the $4.3 billion package is the largest single outlay for a teacher pay raise in the country. “We can’t find another state in America that has put this much money together at one time for a teacher compensation package,” said Creighton. “We’re very, very proud and excited on behalf of our Texas teachers.”
Should Creighton’s bill, SB 26, become law in its present form, it would give a raise to all teachers with three or more years of experience. It distinguishes between urban and rural districts, offering more to teachers in districts with enrollments smaller than 5,000, in order to close the significant pay gap between urban and rural districts. Teachers with three or four years on the job would get a pay bump of $2,500 in urban districts and $5,000 for rural districts. Teachers with five or more years experience would get $5,500 if they work in an urban district and $10,000 if they work in a rural one.
The bill would also make sure that incoming teachers could expect those raises going forward. A new teacher entering their third year in a rural district would get an automatic $5,000 raise. When that teacher reaches five years of service, they would get another $5,000. It works the same in urban districts: $2,500 in year three and another $3,000 in year five. This is certainty that incoming educators will appreciate, said Creighton. “This will ensure that they don’t just start strong, but that they stay strong throughout their career,” said Creighton.
On Thursday, the Senate gave unanimous approval to a bill intended to send a message to the Texas Lottery Commission following allegations of corruption at the agency. Edgewood Senator Bob Hall said that since he started looking into the commission, he’s been astonished by the dereliction of duty demonstrated by lottery commissioners. They changed rules, he said, in violation of legislative intent, to permit the purchase of lotto tickets via telephone or the internet, and permitted the use of third-party couriers who could buy lotto tickets on behalf of other customers. This opened the door for significant fraud and abuse, including an incident with the April 2023 Texas Lotto jackpot, in which a consortium allegedly used such technology to purchase more than 28 million tickets, enough to cover every possible number combination and guarantee a win. Commissioners, he said, repeatedly denied that they had any authority to make changes to eliminate third-party vendors. That changed, he said, just hours before the Senate State Affairs Committee was set to take up Hall’s bill on Monday, when they released a statement saying they would be dealing with these problems after all. “What action did it take to allow the commissioners to finally find their authority? Nothing, except exposing their deception,” said Hall.
Though the policy changes announced by the commission would end courier sales, SB 28 would add criminal penalties to those who violate the law. A true remedy for the problem, said Hall, could only come through the abolishment of the Lottery Commission. “I strongly believe that the only legislative change that would have a meaningful impact and eliminate the organized crime syndicate embedded in the Texas government is legislation that completely and permanently abolishes the Lottery Commission,” he said.
Both Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick have called on state law enforcement officials to look into the 2023 Texas Lotto drawing. Patrick sent a letter to DPS earlier in the week, asking the Texas Rangers to investigate “any and all matters related to the Texas Lottery Commission.”
The Senate will reconvene Tuesday, March 4, at 11 a.m.
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