COLLEGE STATION, Texas — We all have one teacher we'll never forget who changed our lives. However, their paychecks haven't exactly kept up with the times with the cost of living continuing to go up.
The College Station Independent School District is looking to change educator wage by having residents vote on proposition A that will put more pennies into teachers' paychecks. CSISD superintendent Mike Martindale explained why he needs people to vote in its favor.
"In essence its asking our voters here at CSISD, instead of lowering the tax rate 6.7 percent that we lower it 3.7 cents, leave those three pennies that are already there and the revenue we collect of those three pennies we apply towards increased employee compensation," said Martindale.
This is how the proposition will read on the ballot:
"COLLEGE STATION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT PROPOSITION A -We know our teachers, our educators do so much and I think we've always known that but we don't appreciate that as much as we could and certainly it's not just about compensation but they do need to be able to make living."
However, there is still another battle to be fought: finding and filling staffing positions.
"Recruiting and retaining high quality educators are increasingly more challenging since the pandemic, during and afterwards," said Martindale.
However, the reality is that little to no pay is driving good teachers out of the profession. Chris Field, a CSISD parent, shared how he believes voting "yes" will be a start to showing more appreciation to our educators.
"Many of our local teachers here are making a lot less than districts around us. And with cost of living increasing, inflation, there's a lot of teachers leaving to go to other districts," said Field. "Some of our best."
It's causing many to leave a district that many call home because they don't make enough to sustain themselves.
"If this is approved that zero a year at no experience pay for a teacher pay would move to $49,600," said Martindale.
It's a change that would uplift and support our education system. Which in turn, would allow these educators to keep molding and building up the next generation of future leaders.
"Voting yes for this, voting for this rather is such an easy way to say we see you, we hear you, we support you. And this is just the beginning," said Field.