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TSTA/NEA News Releases

TSTA and NEA hold news conferences throughout the year to keep the public informed on education issues. Here are some of our recent releases.

April 18, 2006
Tax Bill or Not, $8.2 Billion Surplus Makes Teacher Pay Raise, More School Funds a Must
Citing Primary Elections and Poll Results, TSTA President Says Voters Will Consider Anything Less a Failure

Yesterday, Comptroller Strayhorn’s latest revenue estimate said Texas lawmakers have approximately $8.2 billion available to spend next year without passing any new or additional state taxes. If Governor Perry’s tax plan were adopted, the state would have almost $6 billion in additional funds to buy down property taxes. However, as the special session opened, neither the Governor nor House leaders have made any commitment to use any of our tax dollars to provide additional support for the voters’ top priority: our children’s schools and their teachers.

“With over $8 billion available before the Perry tax plan is even considered, any school finance plan that leaves our children’s schools and their teachers out of the equation just doesn’t add up,” said Donna New Haschke, President of the Texas State Teachers Association.

“Certainly, we understand the need for meaningful property tax relief and believe everyone should pay their fair share to support our schools, but tax reform or no tax reform, those who turn their backs on our school children this spring will be branded with an “F” for failure when Texas voters cast their ballots this fall,” Haschke added.

Haschke noted that in March and again last week, voters in both party primaries sent a clear message to our state leaders by electing pro-education candidates. She said both statewide and district level polls, including a TSTA statewide poll conducted jointly this year by nationally respected Republican and Democratic pollsters, reflect the results of the recent primaries, showing that 47% of Texans identify public education as the top state priority, three times the number (16%) who chose cutting property taxes. And by a 58%-34% majority, voters also prefer that teacher pay raises be given to all teachers, rather than targeting pay raises based on standardized test scores.

“We know what Texans want. A bipartisan majority have said education funding is as important if not more important than cutting property taxes. Yet Governor Perry and Speaker Craddick seem determined to spend every available dollar for a tax swap plan, denying legislators the opportunity to carry out the wishes of their constituents,” Haschke observed.

Haschke explained that Texas ranks dead last among the 10 most populous states in terms of actual average teacher salaries ($6,688 below the national average) and actual per pupil expenditures ($1446 below the national average), two key reasons that over 53,000 teachers are assigned to teach at least a portion of each day in classes they have not been certified to teach.

“Without a meaningful across the board teacher pay raise and a 100% commitment to increase funds spent in our children’s classrooms, our students will not have the qualified teachers and quality instructional tools they need to succeed,” Haschke said.

“The special interests may be raising millions to support a plan that does nothing for our schools, but for the vast majority of Texans, our most special interest is our children. After three years, two sessions, and three special sessions of failure, we expect our legislators to represent us, not the special interests,” Haschke concluded.

Response to Texas Tax Reform Commission Plan

TSTA President Donna New Haschke, March 29, 2006: "If a 92-page tax swap is a necessary prerequisite for accomplishing what the public really wants the legislature to do, then we’ve completed it.  Now we must get started on the required course work for this session--providing additional funds to public schools so that they have the resources to fully fund existing proven programs, providing teachers with a pay raise, and providing smaller classes and up-to-date technology. 

"The public has repeatedly said over the last four years that those things are what they want--it is time for the Governor and the legislature to respond to those real needs voiced by the people of Texas.  They know that success of our public schools depends on these things; not on shuffling taxes from one pocket to another.  TSTA can only hope that when the legislature comes to town on April 17, they will be narrowly focused on the real objectives of creating an equitable school finance system that provides additional resources to our under funded public schools and meeting the Supreme Court’s requirement to give local school districts meaningful local discretion."

Bipartisan Support Exists for More State Funding for Public Schools

Voters Oppose Teacher Pay and Funding Based on Standardized Test Scores

Statement of TSTA President Donna New Haschke, February 21, 2006: For over three years, many state leaders have stuck their head in the sand and ignored the majority of Texans who want the state to make a real commitment to supporting and improving our children’s schools.

With the primaries at hand and another special session looming ahead, candidates and officeholders would be wise to review the results of a bipartisan poll of 803 active Texas voters conducted by Republican pollster Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group and Democratic pollster Paul Harstad of Harstad Strategic Research during the week of January 22-26, 2006. 

Recently, the Governor and many in the legislative leadership have said it’s just too much to expect more from a 30-day special session than another “revenue neutral” plan that merely swaps higher state taxes for property tax relief, with none of the new state tax dollars going out to schoolchildren and their teachers. The public disagrees.  This bipartisan survey, conducted by two of the nations’ most respected pollsters, shows that the leadership’s greatest failure has been on insisting on doing too little instead of trying to do too much for our schools. Some key poll findings include:

•         Public education remains the top state priority: 47% choose public education as the most important issue for state government. That’s twice the level of support for any other priority and up 5% from last year’s survey. Voters are three times more likely to choose public education than the legislative leadership’s priority of cutting property taxes (16%).

•         64% of voters say we need to invest more money in public education, compared to only 29% who believe we can provide our children with a good, adequate education by using our current education dollars.

•         By a 59%-33% margin, voters would also like to see full funding for things like “smaller class sizes, higher state standards, and better teacher pay,” and they consistently reject the performance-based “incentive” approaches to school funding and teacher pay that have been proposed by the leadership. 

•         A 58-34% majority of voters prefer across-the-board pay raises for all teachers rather than targeting pay raises based on standardized test scores.

•        Texans want accountability and higher standards to make sure their tax dollars are well spent to educate our children, but a strong bipartisan consensus agrees that standardized testing is overemphasized. Seven in 10 Texas voters say they would like to see an increase in state education standards, and when asked to name the most important standards, they focus primarily on raising teacher pay / more teachers / better teachers (36%) and smaller class sizes / funding / materials (22%).  By contrast, when asked about the emphasis on state testing, a 56% majority say there is too much emphasis.

•         Teachers are seen as the most important factor in determining the quality of our children's education. In the poll, 88% of parents rated their child's teachers as excellent or good.  When asked to volunteer the most important factor in a good public school, half mentioned teachers first, compared to curriculum, safety, materials, administration, test performance, and all other factors.

As we have found every year for four straight years, there is strong bipartisan support for public education in Texas. On every key policy choice, majorities of Democrats, Independents and Republicans opt for more investment in Texas public schools. 

TSTA Sues SBEC over Tardy Removal of Flagged Certificates

January 19, 2006: The Texas State Teachers Association filed suit today in Travis County District Court against the State Board for Educator Certification, asserting that the Board is performing its duties in an illegal and unconstitutional fashion. 

The State Board for Educator Certification is the state agency responsible for issuing teaching certificates and investigating alleged disciplinary infractions against Texas school teachers.  In its lawsuit the teachers’ association claims that SBEC’s failure to schedule hearings on allegations of misconduct violates the laws and constitution of Texas.  “We expect justice to be fair and swift when it comes to Code of Ethics complaints against teachers.  A teacher with a flagged certificate will encounter great hardship in getting a job or changing jobs.  SBEC has been warned before that they need to address this situation and it hasn’t happened.  We felt that we had no recourse but to seek a legal remedy to this problem,” said TSTA President Donna New Haschke.

Presently, when a complaint is filed against a teacher the State Board for Educator Certification places a notice of investigation on the teacher’s certificate.  According to the lawsuit which was filed today, the placement of this notice “results in the impairment of [teachers’] ability to obtain and retain employment” and stigmatizes the “professional competence” and “personal character” of teachers.   SBEC is required by law to respond to a complaint within 130 calendar days of receiving it. Yet teachers who have had their certificates flagged since 2003 have not yet had their cases heard according to the teachers’ association. 

The lawsuit seeks only a declaration that the delay in prosecuting the charges violates the laws and constitution of Texas.  “The public is entitled to receive, and should expect to receive, the highest level of assurances that our school teachers are fit and capable of instructing the students of Texas.  However, the illegal conduct of this one state agency not only prevents these protections from being realized but also causes excellent teachers to be branded as suspicious or somehow shady because SBEC is refusing to do the job which it is charged with, and refusing to prosecute these cases” according to Michael Shirk, one of the attorneys representing the teachers.

TSTA Endorses Carole Keeton Strayhorn for Governor

January 10, 2006: This weekend, the Texas State Teachers Association Political Action Committee (TSTA-PAC) endorsed Carole Keeton Strayhorn for Governor.

"I've known Carole since she was on the Austin School Board, and no one has been more committed to improving public education than she has over the course of her political career," TSTA President Donna New Haschke said. "Texas schoolchildren and teachers need a Governor who can forge a bipartisan education funding plan. We have given the current leadership three years to get the job done and they have failed.

"For three years we have waited and waited, and the Governor has failed to pass a plan that addresses the critical needs our schools face. It's time to elect a leader who can get the job done for students and schools. We cannot wait another four years for a Governor with the vision, the skills, and the plan to give our schools the resources they need to succeed. We believe that Carole Keeton Strayhorn is the right person, at the right time, to make that happen," Haschke said.

"In 2002, Texas was 32nd in the country in per pupil spending for instruction. We spent $698 per student less than the national average. In the 2004-05 school year we had dropped to 40th in the country, spending $1,446 less per student than the national average. We cannot create a first class school system without the necessary resources, and shifting taxes around from one pocket to another isn't going to get us there. It's time for one tough Grandma to take the reins of state government and set a course for a brighter future for the children of Texas," Haschke said.

The TSTA-PAC is comprised of 21 members from every geographical region of the state and three representatives of all of TSTA's affiliates. TSTA represents 65,000 educational employees in the state.