Charles Butt Foundation Poll Shows 70% of Texas Teachers Aren’t Paid a Living Wage, 78% Want to Quit

The Charles Butt Foundation has released the latest results from its annual survey of Texas teachers, and the findings are as dire as you'd expect.

In its 2024 survey, the Charles Butt Foundation found that 77% of Texas teachers say they are not paid a living wage. Adjusted for inflation, the median salary reported by public school teachers in the state in 2023 was $5,000 less than it was in 2020.

On top of this, the report notes, the "share of Texas public school teachers in 2024 who call lack of funding one of the biggest problems facing their community's public schools has more than doubled since 2022, rising to become one of the three leading concerns."

These numbers are concerning but not surprising, and they highlight the continued crisis of teacher recruitment and retention in our public schools.In this fifth-annual Texas Teacher Poll from the Charles Butt Foundation, 78% of teachers said they had considered leaving their profession, which is up from 75% last year and up from 58% in 2020.

As we know from the feedback of our own members, the issues aren't solely related to salaries either. Reasonable working conditions are as much a driver as stagnant pay.

The Charles Butt Foundation reports that fewer than half of surveyed teachers say their administrators regularly advocate for them in interactions with parents (45%) or provide opportunities for them to develop their teaching skills further (43%). The percentages fall further for motivating them to remain in the profession (30%%) or encouraging them to advocate for their needs (27%%).

These figures mirror our own membership survey results; together, the data shows what it means to be a public school teacher in Texas today and demonstrates the necessity for an Educator's Bill of Rights.

Passing this legislation would improve working conditions, expand access to fair wages, enshrine academic freedom, guarantee quality and affordable childcare, and other vital measures that will help to make being an educator in Texas a livable, maybe even desirable, profession again.

We cannot continue to let those who are educating the future of our country be underserved and overlooked. To contact your state representative to talk to them about the importance of the Educator's Bill of Rights, you can find who represents you here. Additionally, you can check to see if a candidate running in your district is endorsed by Texas AFT's COPE fund.

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