Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. By taking care of our needs as employees, we ensure our students have what they need to succeed. Lawmakers in Austin have refused to give you a pay raise, just like they’ve refused to take up bills that would improve your day-to-day working environment.
In a five-month regular session and two special sessions, our leaders let us down.
- Did they pass a bill to keep your class sizes under control? No.
- Did they pass a bill to reduce the amount of standardized testing our students go through? No.
- Did they pass a bill to make you safer from violence in your classroom? No.
- Did they increase your school’s funding to make any improvements whatsoever? No.
We’ve made ourselves quite clear about the issues driving K-12 and higher education employees out of their jobs. So far, lawmakers haven’t listened. This fall, we won’t give them a choice.
Join the largest statewide effort of public school employees in Texas to document the real issues in our schools. Sign up for our Strive to Thrive working conditions project! Each week from Sept. 15-Oct. 15, we’ll email you a form to track certain conditions affecting your job, like the amount of time you had for planning, grading, lunch, or breaks, or the safety concerns you experienced.
What you tell us fuels our fight, at the national, state, and local levels. Because even if the people in charge won’t take care of us, we will.