State task force to study teacher shortages

The Texas Education Agency will convene a task force to study chronic staff shortages that the state’s schools face, which predate the COVID-19 pandemic but have been exacerbated by it.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced the formation of the task force Monday, writing that the group will be charged with examining how staff shortages are hurting Texas schools, crafting policy solutions to the problem and exploring whether teacher certification or hiring practices can be changed to allow for easier recruitment.

“The ongoing and increasing shortage of fulltime and substitute teachers in schools across the state demands a thoughtful, creative conversation to develop strategies to attract, train, and retain the teachers our students need,” Abbott wrote.

Staff shortage problems existed in Texas schools before the pandemic, but hiring has been made more difficult during that period, particularly in rural areas, a TEA spokesman wrote in an email. The shortage has especially affected substitute teachers.

Clay Robison, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, said he hopes that Abbott is serious about addressing this issue, but that ultimately staff shortages come down to a lack of pay for Texas teachers. Robison said Abbott has contributed to the problem previously by not approving widespread teacher pay increases — teacher pay in Texas remains below the national average — as well as by the governor’s ban of mask mandates in schools.

“The pandemic made it worse, and the governor didn’t help. He was a big hindrance during the pandemic,” Robison said. “Teachers were struggling. They were being heroic. They were teaching their classes and trying to keep their students and themselves safe at the same time, and the governor didn’t even consider allowing mask mandates to help.”

There is also a large number of open school jobs created by the $18 billion in federal stimulus funds distributed to school districts.

Decisions on how COVID-19 education funds are to be spent were delegated by the federal government to the school districts around the state that are receiving the funds. The purpose of the funds is to address learning loss for children who missed class time due to the pandemic or were forced into a virtual environment, but districts are given wide leeway to spend the funds how they see fit.

Staff shortages for schools are not limited to the classroom. Nationwide, schools have struggled to hire enough bus drivers, which has caused longer waits for some students as schools around the state are forced to cut back on bus routes.

The members of the task force will be named later this week, a spokesman for the agency said.

In his letter announcing the task force, Abbott mentions a 2017 law that introduced merit-based pay increases for teachers, saying it was part of his effort to retain talented teachers in the workforce. Robison said this step was insufficient, as specific teachers should not be receiving raises until every Texas teacher is paid at least the national average.

“Now that he’s been safely renominated, we’re glad that he’s doing this, we just wish that he’d done this a long time ago,” Robison said.