AUSTIN, Texas — Texas teachers are concerned ahead of the upcoming legislative session, set to begin on Tuesday.
The Texas division of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents 66,000 educators and support personnel across the state, held a press conference Monday morning to lay out its concerns. The organization said the results of last year’s membership survey painted a bleak picture.
Members blame the state for failing to address the needs of public schools and educators. Some of the issues include stagnant pay, underfunded schools and safety concerns, all of which are driving teachers out of the profession.
Rick Levy, the president of the Texas AFL-CIO, the larger labor union affiliated with the Texas AFT, said he’s worried new laws meant to help schools will actually make things worse.
“The question we have for this legislative session is: Is the Legislature gonna stand with workers and try and do things that actually improve people’s lives, or are they gonna continue to stand with the corporate people who put them there?” Levy said. “And I think we have a tough session ahead.”
Levy said while he’s interested to see the fresh dynamics new lawmakers could bring to the Legislature this year, there’s precedent for lawmakers not prioritizing public schools.
“It’s frankly outrageous that last session, we had [a] $33 billion surplus … and the governor blocked that money from going to public schools because of his personal agenda to siphon that money off into unaccountable private schools,” Levy said.
He said the union is focused on the issues that are important to workers, including teachers, rather than “inside baseball” like how the House speaker’s race will shake out.
“We’re focused, really, on a core message: Are workers going to get a fair shot? And regardless of who the speaker is, our job is still the same. And that’s to make sure the voices of workers are heard in the Capitol,” Levy said.
He said what the union’s goal ultimately comes down to is getting lawmakers on the same page to help people.
“There are really serious problems in this state – infrastructure problems, energy problems, school problems, people being able to make enough money to live problems – and what I’m hopeful about is we can get people to focus on really working to solve those problems together,” Levy said. “Let’s get rid of the ‘D,’ the ‘R.’ Let’s focus on the people … Let’s just sit down and fix things. It shouldn’t be that hard.”