Bills I’m Watching: SB 26 – Teacher Compensation

(“Bills I’m watching…” is a series of blog posts where I summarize in plain language what I think a bill is saying. I am not a lawyer; I’m just a regular person who knows how to read.  So, if you see something you think is incorrect about the way I have summarized this bill, please let me know.  — Ashley@deaddillo.com) 

SB 26 – relating to public education, including the rights and compensation of public school educators and funding for teacher compensation under the Foundation School Program.

Author: Creighton     Co Author: Parker

The Main Points

This bill is mainly about teacher/instructional staff compensation.  Here are the main points as I see them, scroll down for more detail:

1. Repeals connection between pay and the Basic Allotment – This bill repeals the connection between increases to the Basic Allotment and increases to teacher pay and pay for other full-time employees. It replaces the formula for increasing teacher pay with other allotments.  It does not address compensation for other full-time employees.
2. Ties teacher pay to performance ranks – In regard to teacher pay, it ties teacher pay more directly to “Local Optional Teacher Designation Systems” for ranking teachers, and it provides for on-going annual allotments to differentiate teacher pay according to the following designations: master, exemplary, recognized, acknowledged.
3. Nudges districts to place highly effective teachers at high need campuses – It requires districts who are participating in the performance ranking system to have a plan in place to assign highly ranked teachers to high need schools.
4. Provides retention allotments – It establishes on-going “Teacher Retention Allotments,” and provides for annual allotments to increase teacher pay based on 3-5 years of experience, and 10 or more years of experience.
5. Provides free Pre-K for teachers – It adds “children of classroom teachers who work in a district” to the list of children entitled to free Pre-K, if Pre-K is provided by that district.
6. Gives TEA responsibility for contracting liability insurance – It directs TEA to hire a third-party contractor to help teachers understand their rights, duties and responsibilities as teachers and to provide liability insurance to protect them from liability based on conduct during the course of teaching duties. It is not clear to me whether or not the liability insurance would be provided free of charge to the teachers, or just made available to them for purchase. Notably, the “third-party contractor” is prohibited from engaging in political advocacy, so this is basically the state taking over a role that was normally provided by teacher unions.

More detail…

Connection between Basic Allotment and pay for full-time district employees repealed.

Currently, any time a school district receives additional funding due to an increase in the basic allotment, 30% of that increase has to be set aside for increasing compensation for “full-time district employees other than administrators.”

Of that 30%, 75% has to go to compensation increases for classroom teachers, full-time librarians, full-time school counselors, and full-time school nurses, with a priority for compensation for classroom teachers with more than five years of experience.  The rest of the 30% can be used to increase compensation for other full-time district employees, except for administrators.

SB 26 repeals that part of the education code. (Sections 48.051(c), (c-1), (c-2), and (d)).

Teacher pay tied more tightly to performance rankings

School Districts currently have the option to participate in the “Teacher Incentive Allotment” (TIA) system which provides allotments to pay extra to some teachers for excellent performance.

This bill would make TIA the main way for teachers to get a pay raise. It strongly encourages districts to set up “Local Optional Teacher Designation Systems” for ranking teachers according to the following designations: master, exemplary, recognized, acknowledged. It strongly encourages districts to set up salary schedules that make those designations the main factor in determining pay raises. It provides for on-going annual allotments to differentiate teacher pay according to these designations.

Under this bill TEA would set up a designation for school districts called, “Enhanced Teacher Incentive Allotment School Districts.”  To qualify for this designation, districts agree to develop and implement a “comprehensive school evaluation and support” system that meets these criteria…

• Ensures that Principals/Assistant Principals conduct teacher evaluations aligned with the designation system. (Note: In keeping with existing legislation, teacher evaluation must include how well the teacher implements discipline management procedures, and it has to take into consideration student performance measures. The student performance measure does not have to be tied specifically to the STAAR test.)
• Ensures that all teachers, regardless of subject or grade level, are eligible to earn a designation,
• Implements compensation system/salary schedule that
  • differentiates among teachers based on staff appraisals,
  • does NOT include across the board salary increases except for periodic increases in times of “significant” inflation. (Significant is not defined specifically.)
• Ensures that a plan is in place to place highly effective teachers at high needs campuses.

Each school district would be responsible for developing its own comprehensive school evaluation and support system.  TEA would provide technical assistance in setting it up.  Texas Tech University would continue to be responsible for monitoring quality and fairness as in the current system.  There would be grants available to help school districts cover the cost of the additional leadership capacity needed to develop and establish the system.  The district would also be allotted money, based on the number of teachers participating, to administer the system.

It is not clear to me from reading the bill what happens to school districts who do not become “Enhanced Teacher Incentive Allotment School Districts.”

Annual allotments for each designated teacher would be as follows:

• Master teacher – $12,000 – $36,000
• Exemplary teacher – $9,000 – $25,000
• Recognized teacher – $5,000 – $15,000
• Acknowledged/National Board Certified teacher – $3,000 – $9,000

Note: These are base allotments, multipliers would apply for teachers in high need or rural districts.

Teacher retention allotment

In addition to pay raises based on performance ranking, SB 26 also proposes annual teacher retention allotments of the following amounts:

For districts with 5,000 or fewer students enrolled:

• For teachers with 3-5 years of experience – $5,000 per teacher
• For teachers with 5 or more years of experience – $10,000 per teacher

For districts with more than 5,000 enrolled

• For teachers with 3-5 years of experience – $2,500 per teacher
• For teachers with 5 or more years of experience – $5,500 per teacher

What would this mean for a teacher in Waco?

As an example, in Waco ISD a typical base pay for a teacher with 10 years of experience in the district might be around $60,000.  That teacher could potentially receive an additional $5,500 a year from the Teacher Retention Allotment, and anywhere from $3,000 more a year to $36,000 more a year from the Teacher Incentive Allotment, depending on how they are ranked.  So, that teacher’s pay could go from $60,000 a year to anywhere from $68,500 a year to $101,500 a year.

When might it go into effect? 

If in acted it would likely take effect in September of 2025.