When she first began teaching 13 years ago, Katrina Rasmussen, a studio art teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in the Dallas Independent School District, said her salary was enough to make a living.
As a special session starts with a focus on 'school choice' but no mention of public school funding, some teachers said they are even considering leaving the profession.
“It’s a simple matter of economics for us,” she said. “If we can’t provide for our own families, if we’re struggling to put food on the table and gas in our cars every single month, that wears on us, and the job is already hard.”In fact, lawmakers failed to pass legislation on public school administrators’ three biggest priorities during the regular session.
“If I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars every year on crayons and colored pencils and construction paper and glue sticks and scissors and plastic cups and everything else that we need for science experiments, I wouldn’t have a problem with ,” Ward said. “But the problem is the public school system is not fully funded.”
“We should acknowledge that not every school works for every child,” Drogin said. “Dictating to children that they must attend a specific school simply because they live in a home on a specific street — it's counter to the freedom that we all hold dear.” But opponents of the bill argue that $8,000 would not cover full tuition at many private schools. The average cost of private education in Texas is $10,400, live in poverty. Barely any families would be able to afford to pay the difference between the voucher allotment and potential private school tuition costs, Borrego said.
Though Borrego also said she would rather see school vouchers snuffed than get a raise, she has begun to contemplate leaving the profession altogether.
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