Dallas school districts have been actively recruiting Oklahoma teachers.
As KFOR reports, Dallas ISD is holding interviews in Oklahoma City this week to try to convince some of the state’s most qualified teachers to head to Texas, where pay and benefits are significantly better than in the Sooner State.
Phreed Evans, an Oklahoma high school teacher, said, “None of us are in education to get wealthy but we don’t want to live just above the poverty line.” In Texas, educators can start out making more than they would receive after a quarter-century of teaching in Oklahoma.
Starting pay in Texas is often $20,000 a year more than in Oklahoma.
Shawn Hime, the executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, said it’s up to lawmakers to improve teacher pay in Oklahoma.
But JJ Dossett, a state Senator, says he’s seen no evidence that a teacher raise is going to happen anytime soon.