Austin, Texas (September 30, 2024) – As voters head to the polls in November and the Texas Legislature returns to Austin in January 2025, Raise Your Hand Texas is calling on lawmakers to prioritize and strengthen the state’s investment in Texas’ 5.5 million public school students and teachers.
“Raise Your Hand Texas believes in creating world-class schools that fuel a brighter future for all Texans,” said Dr. Libby Cohen, executive director of Raise Your Hand Texas. “To achieve that goal, our public school teachers need a competitive wage. And our school districts need to be able to keep up with the sharply increased costs of basic goods like paper, food service, and fuel. None of this can happen without a substantial increase to the basic allotment, which the legislature has not increased since 2019.”
According to Cohen, state lawmakers can build a stronger, more economically competitive Texas with a focus on several critical investments, including:
In addition to paying teachers a competitive wage, Raise Your Hand Texas calls on the Texas Legislature to address the rise in hiring uncertified teachers, which can negatively impact teacher retention and student academic performance. Across the state, as many as 33% of recently hired teachers in the 2023-24 school year were uncertified.
These investments are part of the just-released Raise Your Hand Texas’ 2025 Policy Priorities, which emphasize addressing school funding, teacher workforce, assessments and accountability, and pre-K.
According to the latest Census data, Texas ranks second in total population and is the third fastest-growing population in the nation. However, Texas ranks in the bottom 10 in per-student spending for education, approximately $4,000 per student behind the national average. Funding has remained stagnant since 2019.
From the Capitol to the classroom, Raise Your Hand Texas’ nonpartisan advocacy work over the next year stresses the need for the state to prioritize public dollars for public schools and invest in students and teachers.
“Texas is poised to have an unprecedented amount of revenue to address the many needs of our Texas students, teachers, families, workforce, and local communities,” said Cohen. “We look forward to working with lawmakers and leaders in our local communities to build consensus around smart, necessary, and transformative investments in Texas’ local public schools.”
2025 Raise Your Hand Texas Policy Priorities
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About Raise Your Hand Texas
In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of Texas business and community leaders founded Raise Your Hand Texas with the belief that all Texas children should have equal access to high-quality education. Raise Your Hand Texas supports public policy solutions that invest in our students, encourage innovation and autonomy, and improve college, military, and workforce readiness. For more information, visit RaiseYourHandTexas.org.
Contact: Anne Lasseigne Tiedt, APR
Senior Director of Strategic Communications
atiedt@ryht.org, c: (512) 784-3805
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