The Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 voted unanimously to advance a teacher pay bill Thursday, just 48 hours after making the text of the bill available to the public.

Senate Bill (SB) 26 was filed Tuesday afternoon and includes a tiered raise based on district size and teacher years of service. The bill also seeks to significantly expand the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) performance pay program while removing guarantees of future pay raises tied to future increases to the Basic Allotment.

Committee Chairman Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), who filed the bill, stated that 80% of the $4.3 billion bill is intended to go to teacher raises and 20% to expanding TIA.

Creighton noted that TIA began in 2019 with about 400 participating educators and has grown to approximately 30,000 (less than 10% of Texas teachers). SB 26 would expand eligibility from roughly a third of classroom teachers for the lowest tier of TIA designation to about half. It is unclear how the expansion of statutory eligibility will line up with functional eligibility. In addition to statewide caps on the percentage of teachers who can be given a designation, districts have found it difficult to collect the type of student performance data required to designate teachers who do not teach students in STAAR-tested subjects and grades. This does not appear to be addressed by the bill.

As explained in ATPE’s analysis of SB 26 as filed, districts of 5,000 students or fewer would be directed to provide teachers with three to five years of experience with an additional $5,000 and those with five or more years of experience with $10,000. Teachers in districts of more than 5,000 students would receive $2,500 for three to five years of experience or $5,000 for five or more years of experience.

Creighton said that Texas ranks 15th in the nation in terms of starting teacher salaries while it ranks 40th for experienced teacher salaries, with many teachers deciding by year five whether to stay in the profession.

The bill would also remove statutory protections requiring 30% of future school funding increases to go toward teacher pay raises and would prohibit schools that participate in expanded TIA programs from offering across-the-board raises except in times of “significant” inflation.

The chairman submitted a committee substitute that removes National Board Certification as a pathway toward receiving a TIA designation. In order to receive or renew a TIA designation in the future, teachers would be required to rely on student test scores instead.

Sen. Jose Menendez (D–San Antonio) urged the committee to do more for teachers, pointing out the need to address health care costs for teachers. Creighton replied that the current Senate budget proposes (a one-time) $500 million to cap increases in teacher health insurance premiums at 10%. What is not proposed in this or currently any other bill is updating the amount in formula funding that the Legislature pays toward educator health care—an amount that has been stagnate at $75 a month for more than 20 years, despite a 107% medical inflation rate over that period.

The committee heard invited testimony from administrators and vendors but did not invite a single educator organization to testify. ATPE submitted neutral testimony on SB 26, pointing out our concerns such as uncertainty over the permanence of the proposed raises and the loss of important safeguards intended to ensure teachers receive future raises. (The testimony was written prior to the receipt of Creighton’s committee substitute, hence it does not mention the removal of National Board Certification, which concerns ATPE due to the time and investment made by educators pursuing this designation.)

ATPE also issued a press release offering member reaction to SB 26’s current provisions.

The bill is expected to be heard on the Senate floor next week.