Texas Senate Committee Approves $5,000 Raises for Teachers

Senate Bill 3 now goes before the full Texas Senate for a vote. If it passes, teachers across the state would receive a $5,000 raise beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

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The bill got unanimous approval yesterday and will soon be up for debate before the Senate shortly. Senate Bill 3 is sponsored by Jane Nelson (R) from Flower Mound, Texas. It would require school districts to provide a $5000 raise to every full-time classroom teacher. Overall, this would mean some 350,000 Texas teachers would be eligible for the raise which would cost $1.8 billion dollars a year beginning in 2020.

The bill would include charter school teachers as well. DallasNews.com reports that Nelson said, "The goal of Senate Bill 3 is to provide a well-deserved, across-the-board, permanent $5,000 pay raise for every classroom teacher in Texas. I can't promise for every future Legislature. But I'll say this, they're going to have to undo it."

The next step is a vote from the House after the bill got support from 23 of 31 senators.