Texas
Politics and pandemic are driving Texas teachers to consider quitting, survey finds
![Politics and pandemic are driving Texas teachers to consider quitting, survey finds](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/ijVbvn607YZjjqSQP6Lb2ZtGZtQ=/1200x630/filters:quality(95)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/27ed64f11c40e415680f5e15b9a8ad80/School_segregation_ALA_Euclid_04_LS_TT.jpg)
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Outcomes from a brand new on-line survey of Ok-12 academics in Texas, launched on Thursday, exhibits most “critically thought-about” leaving the occupation this yr, a 19% improve from two years in the past.
For its third annual survey on trainer satisfaction, the Charles Butt Basis final spring despatched a web based questionnaire to 1,291 Texas public college academics who had been randomly chosen from the Texas Training Company’s 2020 roster of academics within the state. All of them responded.
The Charles Butt Basis is a nonprofit group named after the chair and CEO of H-E-B, the most important privately held employer in Texas. The muse’s aim is to make public schooling extra equitable throughout the state by means of group partnerships.
Of these surveyed, 77% of them critically thought-about leaving the occupation in 2022, a 19% bounce from the 2020 outcomes and a 9% improve from final yr. Amongst these academics, 93% have taken steps to go away corresponding to getting ready resumes or conducting job interviews throughout the previous yr.
“That’s an enormous, startling quantity,” stated Shari B. Albright, president of the Charles Butt Basis. “We want for our public colleges to not solely survive, however thrive and flourish.”
Victoria Wang, a senior analysis affiliate on the basis, warns that when academics should not supported, that affect is felt elsewhere at a neighborhood college.
“Colleges should not only a place the place youngsters go and so they study math and studying,” Wang stated. “It’s the place they learn to work together with one another. It’s the place they learn to be in group with one another.”
These survey outcomes come as Texas is amid a trainer scarcity and college districts are scrambling to seek out inventive methods to draw expertise because the state and nation emerge from the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Some greater districts, like Houston, have the capability to approve vital pay will increase whereas some rural districts have shifted to four-day weeks.
A serious indicator that factors to a scarcity now’s the state’s attrition charge, which tracks the variety of academics who’ve left the sector in any given yr. Because the 2011-12 college yr, Texas’ attrition charge has hovered round 10%. That quantity dipped to about 9% in the course of the 2020-21 college yr however goes again up — rising to virtually 12% in the course of the 2021-22 college yr.
Lecturers level to low pay, lack of respect from each the group and elected officers, extreme workloads and pandemic college disruptions as causes they need to go away. Within the classroom, about 98% of respondents say they’ve to purchase their very own provides, with the median value being about $500. The typical pay for academics has not elevated between 2010 and 2019; it as a substitute decreased from $55,433 to $54,192, in response to a College of Houston report launched earlier this yr.
Within the Charles Butt Basis survey, 91% of Texas academics who stated they really feel unfairly paid earn lower than $50,000 a yr.
Final spring, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Training Company to create a job drive to sort out the trainer scarcity situation. The duty drive has met twice thus far, and college leaders and academics have shared totally different methods they use to draw and retain their workforce.
In 2019, Texas lawmakers mandated raises for academics in a $11.6 billion overhaul of public college finance. The invoice additionally included a advantage elevate system designed to assist rural and poorer college districts entice expertise. In uncommon circumstances, this system rewards Texas’ highest-rated educators with hefty pay raises that might balloon to a six-figure wage.
These components contribute to low trainer morale. Outcomes present that solely 17% of academics indicated they felt valued by Texans, and solely 5% of survey respondents stated they felt valued by elected officers.
Lawmakers during the last two years have put extra on trainer’s plates. Some academics have been required to take a 60- to 120-hour course on studying, often called Studying Academies, in the event that they need to maintain their jobs in 2023. And most have achieved it unpaid on their very own time.
On the similar time, academics have felt the stress to boost standardized take a look at scores to pre-pandemic ranges, however it hasn’t been a simple job as academics’ workloads have elevated as a result of they’ve additionally spent extra time addressing the social and emotional wants of scholars returning to high school after the pandemic.
The survey outcomes confirmed that 86% of academics contemplate their noninstructional duties and tasks obstacles to being an excellent trainer. Of these surveyed, 82% stated say they lack planning time, and 81% really feel pressured to show to realize excessive scores on standardized assessments.
Lastly, academics really feel caught within the crossfire of the state’s tradition wars as college boards have centered extra of their consideration in some cities on guide bans and eradicating extra inclusive curriculum than on the way to assist academics and college students have a extra productive yr.
Within the survey, 97% of academics stated a constructive work tradition and surroundings would maintain them within the occupation longer. Solely 51% stated they at present work in that surroundings. Lecturers additionally would really like better enter in school- and district-level decision-making. Solely 16% of respondents stated they’ve enter into these selections now.
“I worry an exodus and it’s not inevitable,” Albright stated. “Lecturers informed us what we have to do.”
Lauren Prepare dinner, the muse’s senior strategist, stated the way forward for the state and its workforce is at stake if enhancements aren’t made.
“It’s actually on the Legislature and people on the native decision-making stage to pay attention,” Prepare dinner stated. “We are able to’t be at a extra vital turning level.”
Disclosure: H-E-B and College of Houston have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
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Texas
Texas woman credits program for her sobriety after fentanyl overdose
![Texas woman credits program for her sobriety after fentanyl overdose](https://images.foxtv.com/c107833-mcdn.mp.lura.live/expiretime=2082787200/be7357ebdc0b830f2affc2e746d49675c57b3e549c74afce5f77f47cd212a599/iupl/D0C/10A/1280/720/D0C10AFB9032D571F5BB5ED5C16263C0.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Woman credits program for sobriety
In April 2023, a Hays County woman survived a fentanyl overdose. She was in the throes of an addiction that nearly killed her. Today, she credits a program called Neighborhood Defender Service for her sobriety.
HAYS COUNTY, Texas – In April 2023, a Hays County woman survived a fentanyl overdose. She was in the throes of an addiction that nearly killed her. Today, she credits a program called Neighborhood Defender Service for her sobriety.
Meaghan Callahan said April 26, 2023, is the day that changed her life forever.
“I don’t remember anything except for waking up to the first responders around me and I really had no idea what had happened,” Callahan said.
Callahan had overdosed on fentanyl. EMS administered four doses of Narcan and saved her life.
“When I came to, and I really just got my senses about me, in that jail cell, I was grateful to even be in a jail cell, it gave me a new lease on life,” Callahan said.
Accidental drug overdoses in Travis County
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office released its 2023 annual report revealing 279 people died from a fentanyl overdose.
Callahan was in jail and charged with multiple felonies for possession. Police said marijuana was in plain view, and they also found several other types of drugs. Two kids, both under the age of five, were just feet away and were being taken care of by a roommate.
“Children do not deserve to be wrapped up in that world,” Callahan said.
Callahan said she had relapsed. She is a recovering alcoholic and blamed herself, at the time, for trying to get sober alone.
“Even though it was self-medicating, I was trying to treat my alcoholism with the studies that have been done by microdosing ketamine and mushrooms and I felt like that would help me as well as the CBD and cannabis that was found, I thought that that would help me with my postpartum depression to be honest,” Callahan said.
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It almost cost her her life.
“You can’t really fix yourself; you’ve got to go outside yourself to the community and the professionals to get help,” Callahan said.
Callahan was given that opportunity. She was represented by an attorney with the Neighborhood Defender Service, specifically for Hays County.
“We try to help the client instead of just trying to help the case,” Neighborhood Defender Service Texas Meenu Walters said.
Fentanyl deaths growing in Travis Co.: report
The number of fentanyl-related deaths continues to grow in Travis County, according to the 2023 Medical Examiner’s Report.
NDS staff have been handling about 25 percent of all Hays County cases since 2023. Walters said they use a holistic, team-based model of defense, which includes not only lawyers, but social workers, client advocates, and investigators.
“Something that we can try to work on is building out and identifying community-based options for people so that if we can get in and get people the help that they need outside the system, maybe the system is not what they rely on for help,” Walters said.
“I had a whole team around me to really help me just get better,” Callahan said.
A judge gave her a second chance. All of Callahan’s charges were dropped. She’s now in recovery and wants to help others.
“I want to give hope to the people out there that are in active addiction or love people that know there is a solution and there’s a huge team of us waiting to help,” Callahan said.
She encourages people to ask for help because she said a wonderful life is on the other side.
Texas
Texas man dies while hiking to Phantom Ranch on Grand Canyon River Trail
![Texas man dies while hiking to Phantom Ranch on Grand Canyon River Trail](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/06/27/PPHX/74239707007-635666860803347185-point-sublime.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1799,1012,x0,y187&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Going hiking? Three tips to stay safe on the trail
If you’re planning on going hiking, it’s important to keep some tips in mind before hitting the trails.
A Texas man died while hiking the Grand Canyon’s River Trail on Saturday, National Park Service officials said.
Park officials received a report of a semiconscious hiker on the River Trail halfway between Silver Bridge and Black Bridge near Phantom Ranch around 7 p.m. Saturday. The hiker, identified as 69-year-old Scott Sims from Austin, Texas, became unresponsive shortly after.
Bystanders attempted CPR before three park service paramedics from Phantom Ranch responded to the scene and took over. CPR attempts were unsuccessful.
Sims was hiking to Phantom Ranch for an overnight stay, park officials said.
The Coconino County Medical Examiner and the National Park Service were investigating the incident.
Texas
A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck
![A Letter to Texas and Oklahoma: Goodbye and Good Luck](https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/USATSI_15049254.jpg)
Monday, July 1, 2024, is going to end up being a day to remember in Big 12 history. It is the day that Texas and Oklahoma are officially out of the Big 12 and into the SEC. Is it the biggest day in Big 12 history? Only time will tell.
While Monday is a huge day for everyone involved, I can’t help but go back to Big 12 media days three years ago. Former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby cracked a joke about being glad he didn’t have to answer realignment questions and said that everything was fine within the conference.
Less than two weeks after that statement, the news heard around the world broke. Texas and Oklahoma were heading to the SEC after the 2024 season. Of course, we all knew that they would get out earlier, and they did. Instead of having to wait another four years, they got out in three after forking up millions of dollars.
I may not be a true Big 12 historian, but I am not stupid enough to realize what these two schools have done for the conference. Like it or not, Oklahoma and Texas have combined for 18 Big 12 titles in the last 25 years. Fourteen of those titles have come from the Sooners, while the Longhorns have had four. They have brought name recognition to the conference along with a pair of national titles and countless title game appearances.
The success they have had here (especially Oklahoma) has been off the charts. The Sooners had a run of six Big 12 titles in a row before the streak ended in 2021. And as someone who has covered the conference since 2016, I have seen plenty of championships won by Oklahoma. In fact, I have covered just two conference championship games that haven’t featured either Oklahoma or Texas since the game was brought back in 2017.
Both schools have had their fair share of superstars over the years. Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, and Kyler Murray all won Heisman trophies while playing in the Big 12, while Texas has had a few close calls between Vince Young and Colt McCoy. I could go on and on about all the greats that have suited up for these two since the conference came together in 1996, but that would take up too much time here.
Whether or not you will be shedding a tear or jumping for joy is up to you, but there is no doubt in my mind that the conference will not be the same without these two schools. The SEC is saying that it’s a new era, and you know what? It’s also a new era in the Big 12, too.
We are bringing in four new schools and have brought in a total of eight new schools in the last couple of years. Without Texas or Oklahoma leaving, I am not sure if that would have happened, but I am glad it did. Am I going to miss that first Saturday in October at the Cotton Bowl? Sure, but I am also excited to see what the future holds in the Big 12 because it is going to be the most exciting football conference in America from top to bottom. So goodbye, Texas and Oklahoma.
Maybe we will meet again, but until then, enjoy the SEC. Sometimes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
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