Email, Mark Wiggins, lobbyist, Association of Texas Professional Educators, Feb. 21, 2018

2:45 p.m.

We searched far and wide for any legislation that the lieutenant governor could have been referencing, including bills such as SB 19 and SB 97. Despite unfunded mandates and exotic suggestions such as exploring the use of as-yet-undiscovered future funds as payment mechanisms, we were unable to identify any teacher pay bill appropriating new money for an average $10,000 raise.

To be clear, SB 19 in no way proposed a $10,000 raise.

SB 19 proposed a one-time bonus of either $600 or $1,000 for a limited number of qualifying teachers for the 2018-2019 school year, which would have been paid for by deferring the state’s responsibility to fund Medicaid. The bill contemplated a separate $1,000 mandate on districts to figure out how to raise teachers’ salaries locally, with no additional state dollars, beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. Without funding, educators saw the legislation for the empty gesture it was, and the $1,000 unfunded mandate was removed from the bill before it even left committee. Like SB 19, SB 97 fell far short of any $10,000 figure and did not contemplate any appropriation of new money.

The bottom line: While the Senate dutifully passed each of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s 30 legislative priorities, legislation to give teachers a $10,000 raise was never even filed.

The lieutenant governor offhandedly suggesting school districts could simply reorganize their budgets – while decreasing the amount of funding the state provides them – is not realistic, not helpful, and absent any bill language, certainly does not rise to the level of legislative proposal.