In June, the district adopted a $2 billion budget for FY 2023-24, which is about 7% higher than the previous fiscal year. At the same time, the basic allotment of state funding schools can receive per student, which is $6,160, has not increased since 2019, even to compensate for inflation. Without an increase in that allotment, school districts are having to pull from their own finances to fund student expenses.
During the most recent Texas legislative session, several North Texas school districts, including DISD, repeatedly called for increased funding from the state’s nearly $33 billion budget surplus to help schools stay financially afloat amid rising inflation. However, lawmakers failed to pass proposed bills that would have increased that funding, leaving DISD to fend for itself to increase teacher salaries enough to recruit and retain educators.
“It is unfortunate where we are this point, but we did the best that we could do to leverage the resources that we do have to at least show our staff that we do value and appreciate the work that they do day-in and day-out,” DISD Chief Financial Officer Tamika Alford-Stephens said.
Teacher compensation
With the new budget, teachers will be paid a starting salary of at least $61,000 based on experience, a $1,000 increase from the starting teacher salary last year. The average teacher salary in DISD is $64,020, compared to an average salary of $58,618 in Richardson ISD and $60,687 in Plano ISD, according to the Texas Education Agency.
DISD teacher Chris Leal—an executive board member of Alliance/American Federation of Teachers, a labor union that includes DISD employees—said the small raise the district set in its new budget is not enough for teachers like him to manage rising costs of living. His salary has not risen at the same rate as his housing costs and insurance bills, which he said is “pretty stressful financially.”
The district uses an incentive bonus model based on a system called the Teacher Excellence Initiative, which evaluates teachers based on classroom observations and student evaluations and achievement. It uses goals, such as student learning objectives, to measure success through the system. Leal said TEI “frankly doesn’t work” because it pits teachers in a competition for limited bonus funds.
“These bonuses are just little Band-Aids that help [officials] save face in the moment, but you can’t count on that. You can’t get a mortgage on that, a car loan on that,” Leal said. “Some people get pennies, and some people get a dime, but it’s not enough all the way around.”
Asking teachers to go above and beyond with “exemplary” performance is counterproductive with the statewide teacher shortage, Leal said. As teachers deal with growing class sizes, budget cuts, COVID-19, reading materials censorship, students’ mental health, rising gun violence and standardized testing on top of their general workload, it’s “undignified” to force teachers to “prove” how hard they’re working, he said.
Robert Abel, DISD chief of human capital management, said in an email that the district has used “strategic compensation” through systems such as TEI since 2014 in order to recruit and retain teachers, especially “at the campuses that need them the most.” He added that the initiative “ensures market-competitive base salaries” that will result in fewer teacher vacancies and higher quality educators.
So far, DISD has seen a record number of teacher applicants for the 2023-24 school year, with nearly 8,500 applications submitted as of late July, Abel said.
Other costs
In addition to teacher pay raises, the budget includes additional compensation for nonteaching staff. Their minimum wage will increase to $16 per hour, up from $15 per hour last year.
The new budget also includes about $63 million in performance-based retention incentives. Employees evaluated with “exemplary” or “master” performance levels will receive a $4,000 bonus divided into three payments throughout the year, according to budget documents. Those with “unsatisfactory” performance levels will still get an incentive, but it will be only $500. Employees with five or more years of experience with DISD will get a $1,000 incentive.
With the new budget, the district allocated about $1.2 million for social work services and almost $34 million in security and monitoring services, which is about 3.7% and 4.2% less than the previous fiscal year, respectively, according to the budget.
Planning ahead
Because the district’s fiscal year began July 1, the district was legally required to set its budget during the ongoing special legislative sessions, which could lead to new laws that affect school funding, Alford-Stephens said. When the Legislature goes into special session, as it has this year, the district must re-evaluate its budget later on for any necessary changes.
One new law, which was signed into law about a week before DISD set its budget, will require all public and open-enrollment charter schools to have at least one armed security officer—such as a law enforcement officer, school marshal or teacher licensed to carry a handgun—on campus during regular school hours. Each district will receive $15,000 per campus and $10 per student for school safety initiatives. Richardson ISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum previously told Community Impact that the program will cost millions to maintain. Alford-Stephens said she isn’t sure yet how DISD will pay for the program or whether the cost will affect teacher funding.
“Any time you’re adding staff, that’s a cost,” Alford-Stephens said.“When we’re talking about police—whether it’s using contracted services or whether we are hiring our own officers—there’s uniforms, supplies, materials and training [to fund]. All of that is being taken into consideration right now, with the mindset that we may need to request the board to increase the budget to account for those requirements.”
Moving forward into the new school year, Dallas ISD officials plan to continue advocating for additional funding from the state when possible. Leal said teachers should also plan to be active in the “fight for public education.” He said they should call and write to state leaders and consider joining their district’s labor union, as union leaders are often the ones who organize opportunities for petitioning state lawmakers even during a busy school year.
“The future of public education is really going to depend on the leadership of the state,” Leal said. “Right now, teachers and students are being held hostage in this game.”
