Today, Philanthropy Advocates submitted written comments to the Senate Committee on Education on its interim charge to review teacher pay increases, including the investments in House Bill 2 by Rep. Buckley and Sen. Creighton (89R). The first-year results are encouraging: according to the Texas Education Agency, average teacher pay rose $4,270 (6.3%) to $68,020 in 2025-26, with the fastest growth in small districts. Statewide teacher attrition also fell to 12.1%.
HB2 invested in teacher pay at multiple points in their career, pre-service pay through the PREP allotment, and at the key milestone at 3 and 5 years in the classroom. All of these investments are worth protecting and sustaining. Our comments urge the committee to protect the Teacher Retention Allotment, Teacher Incentive Allotment, and PREP Allotment as permanent investments, and to help rural districts move from TIA approval to paid designations. They also call for committee to think about benefits as a key piece of teacher compensation and take actions to lower the health care costs that are eating into teachers’ raises and provide paid maternity leave to Texas teachers.
Read our full comments here.
