When We Empower Teachers, We Expand Opportunity for Students.

By Kevin Malonson

Governor Greg Abbott recently signed House Bill 2 into law and injected $8.5 billion into Texas public education. This much-needed funding is especially important for students and teachers because more than $4 billion is earmarked for teacher salary increases. It was notable that as Governor Abbott signed the law, JoMeka Gray, a Temple kindergarten teacher and Teach Plus Senior Policy Fellow, sat next to him representing teachers and students from across our great state. As the Texas Executive Director of Teach Plus, a national teacher leadership non-profit that works with teacher leaders to advance opportunities and outcomes for students, I have had the privilege and pleasure to work alongside JoMeka and hundreds of teacher leaders like her across Texas. 

Because I know her, I can tell you that there was no better teacher to represent the profession than JoMeka. Before she shared a stage with the Governor, JoMeka was her district’s Teacher of the Year, a finalist for Texas Teacher of the Year, and a relentless advocate who has testified before the legislature and engaged directly with policymakers including  her representative, Chairman Brad Buckley of the House Committee on Public Education, on issues such as the teacher incentive allotment and early literacy. Her journey is a powerful example of how teacher leadership drives policy change for students.  

As we celebrate the new law and the funding that accompanies it, it’s worth highlighting teacher leadership as a key driver for policy change and student success. Through the Teach Plus Policy Fellowship, we select and train highly effective educators, like JoMeka, on leadership, communications, and advocacy so they can come to the policy table with evidence-based solutions. We then provide the access, connections, and support  to maximize the expertise and agency they bring as teachers to policy and instructional practice issues. JoMeka's experience exemplifies the need for continued teacher engagement as we move forward to implement the components of HB2.

Teaching is the only profession that trains the workforce of the future, and HB2 is a true teacher workforce bill. It prioritizes research-based strategies that will grow early literacy and numeracy skills that will position all our students for success. Most notably, there are provisions in the law that address the recommendations from the Governor’s Teacher Vacancy Task Force Report on teacher compensation, training, and working conditions. This law prioritizes student achievement by ensuring there is a well-prepared and highly qualified teacher in front of every student. I believe teachers like JoMeka hold a unique position as career-connected educators who have the proximity, agency, and honor of building on their students’ academic achievements and stewarding them to post-secondary success and ultimately living wage attainment. Put simply, I want to see more students graduate and be on the path to earning a college or career credential, and I believe teachers play a pivotal role in that process.

If we can begin to view districts as the engine of economic mobility in their communities, then teachers are the coal that fires that engine. At Teach Plus, we are focused on advancing policy, regulation, and best practices that ensure all students have a well-prepared, highly qualified, and career-connected teacher in their classroom. I believe the true power of education, and of teachers, is the ability to provide options and opportunities for students and families to achieve true happiness. For some, that means building wealth, and for others that is simply providing for the basic needs that have long been lacking. Either way, education is a key lever in unlocking the power that lies in the individual. 

Ultimately, we need more leaders like JoMeka in the policymaking process. And we need to view teaching as the pivotal profession it is: the one that shapes every future profession. As we implement House Bill 2, let’s continue to invest in the people closest to students—their teachers. Because when we empower teachers, we expand opportunity. And when we expand opportunity, we change lives.

Kevin Malonson is the Executive Director of Teach Plus Texas.