Currently, there are more than 10,000 job openings to teach in Texas. The state has faced a teacher shortage for years, but it became worse during the two-year pandemic.

Educators say there are ways to reverse the trend - and one is to add more support for teachers' mental health. Former second-grade educator Shelbi Varnell said the workload and stress of having to manage multiple responsibilities at the height of the pandemic finally drove her to check herself into a hospital.

"It got to me in such a way that I felt so overwhelmed, and so just defeated that I was crying," said Varnell. "And my daughter came to comfort me and she said, 'You're not going to leave me, are you?' And I couldn't give her a straight answer, so I put myself into the hospital."

Varnell said she didn't feel supported by her district and, as a single mother, it was tough to teach virtually and make lesson plans at home while her own child was sick.

In March, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Education Agency to create a Teacher Vacancy Task Force to work on the issues of attrition and retention, and how to better support educators.

Teachers say not only do they grapple with massive amounts of paperwork and face restrictions about what they can teach and say without risking their jobs, but low pay levels prompt many to juggle multiple jobs.

Coretta Mallet-Fontenot, who teaches 11th-grade English in the Houston Independent School District, said the switch from in-person to virtual learning made it harder to keep up with the curriculum and required testing - and also brought new challenges for her students.

"They too had to go to work when their parents contracted the COVID, and it became clear that COVID was striking elderly people, you know, harder than the younger folks," said Mallet-Fontenot. "Many of my students had to go work in order to help their families maintain."

The Teacher Vacancy Task Force will meet every other month for one year, and includes current classroom teachers and school administrators.

Mallet-Fontenot said she believes all professions start with good teachers. She said she's convinced that barriers can be removed, and said adequate pay is a way to show respect and value for the teaching profession.

"We don't want to just have a living wage," said Mallet-Fontenot. "We want to have a thriving wage. You know, there was a time in America where being a teacher was a very well-respected career."

Recent figures peg beginning teacher pay as low as $29,000, up to $41,000 a year. And research in 2020 found as many as four in ten teachers work second jobs.

Nearly 22,000 Florida college students could lose critical tuition help under a state House budget proposal.

The plan would cut $3,500 annual grants for students at 15 private schools throughout the state, including three historically Black universities and Embry-Riddle, the nation's top civilian flight school.

House lawmakers tied eligibility for Florida's Effective Access to Student Education (EASE) program to five performance metrics, including a 54% graduation rate and affordability benchmarks.

Bob Boyd, president of Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, warned of fallout.

"It's going to really devastate our sector," he said. "These are students pursuing nursing degrees, becoming pilots, teachers, and they are going to - a lot of them will drop out of their high-demand degree fields because they're not getting this voucher."

House leaders have said their new performance metrics ensure accountability - affecting just 1.2% of Florida's higher-ed students. But Boyd noted that his schools produce 30% of Florida's nurses while getting just 2% of state funding.

Keiser University Vice Chancellor Belinda Keiser said the cuts would hit non-traditional students hardest - working adults, single parents and first-generation college-goers who rely on these grants.

"Thirty-five hundred dollars a year over the next four years will be taken away," she said. "That might cause some of those students pursuing nursing, pursuing Homeland Security, pursuing cyber - and we offer all those degrees - to drop out. And to me, talent should always be one of your best investments."

The Senate's budget fully funds EASE without new metrics, setting up a clash in the conference committee. Lawmakers must reach a deal by April 29 to allow the constitutionally required 72-hour budget review before the May legislative deadline.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


get more stories like this via email

Registration is open for the next information session for the Doswell School of Aeronautical Sciences at Texas Woman's University in Denton, where students accepted into the program will study to earn their pilot's license.

The school is the only woman-focused university nationwide with a professional pilot's program.

Clinton Grant, director of the school, explained the program.

"Once they go through all of the steps to get into the program and the semester starts within a week or so they're in an airplane flying," Grant noted. "It's not something they have to wait later as their junior (or) senior years before they get into it. We start them as quickly as we can. So it's a lot of fun."

The program is limited to 25 students in the fall and spring semesters. The next information session is April 11.

During the information session, Grant pointed out he tries to weed out the students who may not be serious about becoming a pilot. In addition to tuition and fees the cost of flight training could exceed over $100,000 and it can take up to seven years to earn a pilot's license.

"Most flight students, they'll become flight instructors," Grant observed. "They turn around and start teaching students to fly and that's how they build their hours. And then once they reach a certain amount of hours they'll be eligible to be employed by a regional carrier."

The aeronauts program is still in its infancy. The first classes were held in the fall of 2024. Grant added as they grow, they will have more options for students.

"We're going to get into some of the air mobility things as well as operations management or aviation management," Grant outlined. "There's a demand in the area for that. So, we will be heading in that direction next."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


get more stories like this via email

A strike set to begin today has been averted at Western Michigan University, Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine, known as WMed.

Its resident physicians reached a tentative deal with the medical school last week.

For nearly eight months, about 200 residents and fellows had been negotiating for improvements in working conditions, including higher salaries and stipends, and more time off.

Mitchell Batchelder - an organizer and field representative with the Resident and Fellow Alliance, the union representing the residents - said the strike notice seemed to prompt a greater willingness from WMed management to reach an agreement.

He emphasized several key aspects of the deal.

"They secured a three-year contract with guaranteed wage increases in each year," said Batchelder. "They got a meal stipend - you know, they're working 24-hour shifts and they need access to fresh, healthy food in order to bring their best while they're working those 24 hours."

He added that the agreement marks a historic milestone as the first private-sector medical resident contract in the state of Michigan.

Batchelder also stressed the impact such a contract could have on W-Med's future, as well as the community.

With this agreement in place, he predicted the institution will not only retain its current top-tier residents, but also attract new talent.

"From a long-term perspective, for these hospitals in Kalamazoo and for the community, this is a really, really great thing," said Batchelder. "Because it can be really hard sometimes to retain and attract qualified health care professionals. And I think this allows them to have an even stronger pitch to those folks."

Batchelder said he believed this private sector deal could also have a significant national impact on unions and labor laws - highlighting what he describes as the imbalance in current regulations.

He noted that many U.S. labor laws are structured in a way that tends to favor employers.



get more stories like this via email