TALAS E-newsletter – January 19

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Austin ISD’s Chief Financial Officer Ed Ramos told school board members Thursday that compensation is the number one priority for the district’s 2023-2024 budget.

“Hiring teachers and keeping them in the district is a challenge not only for Austin ISD, but for districts across the state,” he said.

Austin ISD’s goal is to raise classroom teacher pay by at least 5%. Ramos said the increase is key to compete with surrounding Central Texas school districts. He told AISD trustees that while the district salaries are competitive for teachers with zero to five years of experience, salaries for veteran teachers are lagging. He is especially focused on getting Austin ISD’s pay on par with Hays CISD, one of the highest paying districts in the area.

As a new year begins, time stands still on the U.S.-Mexico border for tens of thousands of migrants waiting for asylum hearings. It can take months or even years for their cases to be heard, if they are heard at all. But students at the University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic are getting a unique opportunity to help some navigate the complexities of the U.S. legal system.

“These people risked everything to get here, and most of them can’t afford legal representation,” said Teresa Messer, Immigration Clinic director and professor of practice at the Law Center. “Our students not only provide the pro bono representation they need, but they get a top-notch educational experience as well.”

According to figures released by the National School Choice Week organization, 59% of parents of Hispanic and Latino origin have considered finding a new or different school for at least one of their children in the last year.

With the objective of finding options that allow their children to improve their academic performance and find a place where they can feel more comfortable, these searches seek to reduce school dropout rates and increase the chances of success.

Climate change is expected to affect every facet of our lives, and students are hungry to learn more about it. Many experts say the topic goes beyond science class and should be woven through subjects and grade levels.

Yet more than three-quarters of teachers have never received any professional training or education on climate change or how to teach it, according to a nationally representative survey of teachers, conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in December.

Middle and high schoolers juggle a lot between school, friends and family life. But an estimated one in five have even bigger responsibilities — they are also caregivers for their families, at a time when most U.S. schools do not formally identify or support caregiving students.

It’s time for adults to recognize and help caregiving adolescents through federal, state and local educational policies, so they do not need to choose between caregiving and school activities.