Report: Many Texas teachers are underqualified and leave within five years

A Texas House interim report shines a light on teacher workforce problems in Texas ahead of a possible October special session in Austin on education issues.

"Texas has seen a growing overall attrition rate–now at an all-time high," wrote members of the select committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment.

Last year, Governor Abbott convened a task force to look for ways to keep and train teachers. The select-committee members wrote their recommendations have not been heeded by state lawmakers.

For years Amber Shields worked as an elementary school teacher in Dallas, eventually becoming a campus principal. She saw many colleagues leave and believes one reason is the number of hours they had to spend preparing work materials on their personal time.

"Teacher burnout and the amount of time they're required to spend working on their profession after they leave for the day," Shields said.

Shields is now a director of Early Matters Dallas, a coalition aiming to boost the outcomes of young students in North Texas.

"If we could reduce the amount of time teachers are spending finding the resources, creating resources, that can help people to stay in the profession," Shield said.

Lawmakers passed HB 1605 to provide school districts additional money to provide teachers with instructional materials they many times have to prepare themselves. Shields believes the new law providing workbooks, course guides, and other materials will shoulder some of the burden teachers are doing outside of work. A better work-life balance, she argues, will keep teachers on the job.

That law's funding stream was one recommendation prepared by a 46-member Teacher Vacancy Task Force gathered together by Governor Greg Abbott.

In their report, the select committee argues there hasn't been enough follow-through with the teacher vacancy recommendations by state lawmakers.

"The bulk remains unaddressed by the Legislature," committee members wrote.

NBC 5 has requested an interview with the chair of the House select committee, Rep. Brad Buckley, R - Salado, but has not yet heard back.

The select committee wrote nearly one-out-of-three new teachers in the state were not certified last school year. 41 percent of new teachers will leave the profession within five years, they wrote.

"I would like to think it's not a situation where we're advertising on Craigslist and taking whoever comes in," said Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, a member of the select committee and point-person for education on the House budget committee. He's also a retired school superintendent and supports more state action to increase teacher pay.

VanDeaver suggests two main drivers of the high teacher turnover are low pay, especially in rural areas of the state, and student discipline problems increasing after the pandemic.

"Just trying to maintain order and educate those children is just a task that is very daunting. And many of them just don't feel the pay is worth it," said Rep. VanDeaver.

A teacher pay raise failed to pass in the regular session of the Texas legislature. House and Senate lawmakers could not agree on whether a school choice program, where public money would be given to families to use on private and homeschools, should be included.

The majority in the Texas Senate and Governor Abbott support including school choice programs to the pay raise. The majority of lawmakers in the Texas House don't. Some hope a compromise can be found if there are accountability, testing, and auditing measures involved similar to public schools.

That debate will likely start again once Gov. Abbott calls lawmakers back to Austin.