Educator’s Bill of Rights Spotlight: Pre-Filed Support Staff Bills 

State legislators continue to pre-file bills for the upcoming 89th legislative session. We are closely following bills that would support Texas AFT’s Educator’s Bill of Rights, as well as those that are contrary to our members’ needs and priorities. 

The Educator’s Bill of Rights is based on months of workshops held across the state and virtually in which we received vital information directly from our union’s members about the experiences and priorities of K-12 and higher education employees. As we watch the bills roll in, we wanted to take this opportunity to elevate several that specifically address the needs of our amazing support staff. Quite simply, our schools could not run efficiently or serve our students effectively without the legion of skilled folks running these systems. 

House Bill (HB) 419 by Rep. Terry Meza (D-Irving) would amend the Texas Labor Code to establish a new minimum wage requirement for school bus drivers. The legislation would require qualifying employers to pay school bus drivers — defined as those who transport students to and from school or school-related activities — a minimum of $15 per hour or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater. This requirement would apply to public school districts with 4,500 or more students, all open-enrollment charter schools, and any mass transit authorities, commercial transportation companies, or juvenile boards that contract with these educational institutions for student transportation services.   

This bill represents a significant step toward ensuring fair compensation for essential education personnel who are responsible for student safety and transportation as school districts across the state are experiencing school bus driver shortages. (Though even Rep. Meza acknowledges there is much more to be done.) By setting a clear minimum wage standard, the legislation aims to improve working conditions and retention of school bus drivers across Texas and would take effect on Sept. 1, 2025.  

HB 1573 by Venton Jones (D-Dallas) would amend the Texas Education Code to require the board of trustees of each school district to adopt a policy regarding custodian workload for district facilities. The policy would need to establish benchmarks for the amount of square feet that may be assigned to a properly equipped school custodian for maintenance and custodial services during an eight-hour shift. These benchmarks would have to be differentiated by elementary, middle, and high school campuses, and other district facilities such as athletic facilities. Additionally, the policy would be required to be posted on the district’s website.  

This bill sets reasonable expectations for workloads for these critical staff. As school budgets have tightened year after year, custodians have seen their capacity expectations increase without any accompanying raise in pay. Setting clear guidance and limitations will go a long way to assisting those who keep our school environment safe and clean.  

This week, Rep. John Bryant (D-Dallas) filed HB 1257, an omnibus bill relating to the compensation of public school educators, the public school finance system, public school pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs, and the school health and related services program. 

This is a long complex bill, but among the many positive provisions for funding our public schools is a requirement to increase the amount of new money districts receive reserved for compensation of non-administrative staff. The required shelter would move from 30% to 40% of the new funds and would require, rather than simply allow, 25% of that reserve to be spent on non-instructional staff. If passed, this bill would ensure that our support and auxiliary staff will always have a share in increased school funding. 

Salaries for school support staff in Texas have seen modest gains, but many roles remain close to poverty-level wages. Specifically, paraprofessional staff (including educational aides and interpreters) and auxiliary staff (including custodians, food service workers, bus drivers, and many others) have seen modest gains in average base pay over the past 12 years, but the average base pay for these two categories is less than half that of professional staff (including teachers, counselors, and school administrators), and stagnant pay over the past few years together with inflation have eroded those gains.  

Texas AFT is immensely gratified to see many of our endorsed legislators take an active role in writing bills that would benefit our amazing school support staff. As the bill filing period continues, we will provide additional updates in the Hotline highlighting our priorities.