teachers

The Texas State Board of Education is developing a process for vetting materials. Some advocacy groups are concerned the process will be politicized.

Some Texas public school teachers say they have to do side jobs in order to be able to live.

Thousands of retired public employees in Kansas have never seen an increase to their pension pay, and inflation is eating away the value of the those payments. Advocates argue the Legislature owes them a boost.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters is again taking aim at teachers’ unions, this time with the announcement of an Oklahoma State Department of Education public awareness campaign he says highlights teacher unions’ positions on issues.

Even though funding measures advocated for by 2018 Oklahoma Teacher Walkout participants were stymied largely by Republican lawmakers, Oklahoma’s GOP is now authoring record-level education funding measures that include teacher raises, along with a slew of labor rights bills for educators. But the funding bills are far from a done deal — in fact, due to a disagreement in how those bills should operate, there could be no deal at all.

The 46-member committee’s report found compensation, training and better working conditions were key in helping Texas retain and hire teachers.

Oklahoma Senate Republicans unveiled their plan to attract and keep teachers, and Senate Bill 364 is getting a lot of attention — it would mandate 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for full-time school employees. Teacher moms around the state shared their stories with StateImpact.

A group of education deans from public universities in Kansas say the state needs to raise teacher pay, elevate the profession and offer student teachers a paycheck — rather than just another tuition bill — while they work in classrooms.

The Government Accountability Office has released a report analyzing the nationwide teacher shortage in the US. The report lists low pay and a growing negative perception of teachers as the top reasons for dropping retention rates within the profession.

The law doesn’t go as far as a proposed Parents' Bill of Rights that Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed last spring. But it's raising similar questions and fears among teachers that routine classroom discussions might now be illegal.