LONGVIEW, Texas — School leaders across East Texas are sounding the 'Mayday Alarm.' They say the state needs to provide more money for public schools to keep up with inflation.
Pine Tree ISD Birch Elementary teacher, Rachel Benton, said a lot has changed in her forty years of teaching.
"Times have changed in forty years and parenting has changed in forty years," Benton said. "The schools are having to fill those gaps. We’re having to spend more time loving on our kids and building that relationship, so they work hard and have growth."
To have those relationships, Benton said it takes a team. Lindale ISD Superintendent Stan Surratt joined other local school leaders in a news conference Monday morning. He sa sidchools need to increase pay across the board.
"Let’s improve school funding, teachers and all school employees. The teacher shortage is in a crisis mode for the state of Texas. We must improve teacher pay, but also we must improve the pay for all school employees," Surratt said.
Many school districts are facing a teacher shortage. Pine Tree ISD is able to fill those positions but the challenge is retaining them.
"We are fortunate that we can find folks that will come in and be a teacher. The hard part is when they’re here they realize I can’t pay my bills. I’ve got to find another job where I can pay my bills," Benton said.
School leaders also want more control over where state money goes at the local level.
"If we had control of that funding so that we could apply it to where it needed to be for our specific purposes, then I think that would be the best way to handle it instead of earmarking it from the state for certain programs that the state may think are important. Which may be true, but that’s from a different perspective from the boots on the ground here," said Pine Tree High School teacher, Melissa Wright.
Resources like Chromebooks are need to help students be successful.
"If you’re kids are school and they feel successful then that feeds throughout the community," Benton said.
If you would like to see the full conference from Monday morning, you can click HERE.
To send an email to Texas lawmakers, click HERE.