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Yesterday, we asked readers what they would do about teacher pay in Texas. You'll find their answers below.

This is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Hundreds Protest Transparency, Border Security at State Capitol

• Leftwing protesters rallied at the Capitol on Monday against strong borders, federal spending transparency, and the Trump administration. Will Biagini was on the scene. 
         
• In keeping with their philosophy of "intersectionality," protestors' children were also waving LGBTQ+ "pride" flags.
       
• Marching under American flags flipped upside down (and Mexican flags flying correctly), the protestors yelled various slogans attacking Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Greg Abbott.
        

• Keeping up with leftwingers' grievances can be exhausting.

Texas Attorney General Sides Against State Agency in Free Speech Fight

• Rather than backing the agency tasked with enforcing Texas lobbying laws, Attorney General Ken Paxton is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that the Texas Ethics Commission's actions are unconstitutional and represent a violation of First Amendment rights. Brandon Waltens has the details.
      
• NOTE: This article involves my ongoing fight against the speech regulators at the TEC. The dispute dates back to 2014, when the TEC fined me $10,000 for allegedly acting as an unregistered lobbyist. They effectively ruled that my efforts to inform the public and legislators about the Fiscal Responsibility Index required me (and you!) to get permission from the government to speak.
      

• Paxton’s decision to challenge a Texas state agency is rare. While the attorney general’s office typically defends state entities in court, Paxton’s brief emphasizes that he has a duty to uphold constitutional rights above bureaucratic enforcement.

       
• “No free citizen should have to register with the government and pay a special fee just to send letters or emails to the government about matters of public importance,” Paxton told the Supreme Court in his brief.
        

• The attorney general’s filing goes on to suggest that the Ethics Commission’s enforcement of the state's lobby laws is not just improper but harmful to public participation in government. He argues the TEC’s actions stifle political activism rather than regulate true lobbying.

Dallas ‘Church’ Celebrates Drag, Performer Calls for Sacrificing Trump Supporters

• On Sunday at the United Church of Christ Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, a morning service was held dedicated to celebrating drag performers and “transgender” individuals. Valerie Muñoz reports that one performer, speaking at a drag brunch following the service, called on the congregants to sacrifice people who voted for Donald Trump.
         
• This was, allegedly, a comedy routine.
   
• The service was attended by an undercover video team from the Texas Family Project. 
       
• “Nothing about this ‘church’ service was godly or Christian,” said Sara Gonzales, vice president of Texas Family Project. “What church do you know that embraces such degeneracy and sin? Now consider that this church has a children’s and youth ministry.”

Abbott Demands Investigation Into Alleged Secret Transitioning of High School Student

• Gov. Greg Abbott has demanded an investigation into Bellaire High School by the Texas Education Agency after a parent claimed her daughter was socially transitioned without the family's knowledge or approval. Michael Wilson has the story.
     
• At the start of her freshman year, the student’s mother recalled that her daughter came home with a worksheet explicitly asking for her pronouns. Later, despite the information provided on that worksheet, teachers allegedly began addressing the girl by a different name and pronouns. 
      
• "No parent should have to endure this. Another reason why parents deserve school choice." – Greg Abbott

Female Teachers Get Probation After Admitting to Sex With Students

• Two female teachers were sentenced to probation after admitting to sex crimes involving students. As Erin Anderson reports, neither woman will be required to register as a sex offender.
        
• Former Forsan Independent School District coach Kendall Jaye Phillips, 26, pleaded guilty to improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony. Phillips had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female student and exchanged nude photos with the girl.
      
• The teacher was sentenced to seven years in prison, but the sentence was suspended. Instead, Phillips will serve 10 years of supervised probation, which includes 300 hours of community service.
        
• In a similar case, former Rockdale ISD teacher Shawnee Nicole Despain, 26, pleaded guilty to a similar charge. Despain had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student with whom she had a baby. The teacher has been sentenced to 10 years of probation and fined $3,000. 

Related News

• Underwood exchanged nude photos with the girl via Snapchat and used the school’s communication app ParentSquare to arrange meetings.

Round Rock ISD Trustee Alleged to Have Received Illegal Payments From District

• Round Rock Independent School District has been hit with yet another allegation of impropriety. According to a social media post by a former Round Rock ISD trustee, the embattled district paid tens of thousands of dollars to current Trustee Tiffanie Harrison. Adam Cahn has the story.
       
• “Tiffanie took her office in late November of 2020,” wrote former RRISD Trustee Mary Bone, “but records obtained from a community member show that Tiffanie continued to receive a salary worth thousands of dollars while she was a sitting board member until the end of the school year in 2021 even though she had resigned her teaching position in November when she was sworn in as a Trustee. Any salary payment after Tiffanie was sworn in as a Trustee to the district would violate Texas law.”

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Quote-Unquote

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."

– Mark Twain's introduction to ​
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Y'All Answered

During his State of the State address, Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted lawmakers to "increase teachers’ average salary" but also to "reward the best teachers" by expanding the "merit program."

Yesterday, we asked readers what they would do about teacher pay raises if they were in charge. 

Here is a sampling of replies from folks after they participated in the survey...

• “Higher pay does not equal quality of character.” – Sherry Poe
      

• “Raises for teachers don't address the whole problem. Why is public education so expensive for what the results are? Why are there so many administrators?  We need to fix the system, not apply another bandaid.” – Kevin Menard
     

• “Why would the state put more money into public schools via these teacher pay raises when the move is supposed to be toward education choice and a shrinking of government-run education? Which way is it, Texas?” – Amy De Rosa
      

• “Not every teacher has earned a raise!” – Carol Dean
     

• “Money for school districts is NOT the problem! It’s how the districts spend the money!  So much waste! ‘Use it or lose it’ is their mantra! Too much spent on admins that serve no purpose or paying the bad ones off!” – Nan Ellis
      

• “As a former teacher myself, teacher pay is the least of their worries.” – Jessica Reeves
       

• “Teachers probably should have higher pay, which should come from reducing administrative payroll. But, I don't believe bad teachers are why we have poor public education in this country. That means higher teacher pay, however much it may be deserved, is not going to solve our education problems.” – Jerry Harben
      

• “Why would we want to increase pay for incompetency?” – Bruce Delater
      

• “Teachers need a raise for all of the work that is required on them. Support staff also need a raise many could make more at fast food restaurants!” – Michele James
      

• “Too often, an ‘increase in teachers' salaries’ means an increase in salaries for administrators. I would like to see fewer administrators employed in schools and have the savings in fewer salaries go to classroom teachers that know how to teach.” – Thomas Camardo
      

• “I support merit pay as a trustee, but one-time state funds create long-term budget strain. Without annual state revenue increases, districts bear the burden, relying on local taxpayers for over 70% of funding. Sustainable state investment is essential for lasting impact.” – Jessica Ward
      

• “No money for government schools to indoctrinate our children!!” – Kay Neff
      

• “Throwing money at a problem is a sure sign of liberalism.” – Rick Murray
      

• “I do not think teachers are universally underpaid in Texas, but I would support merit-based raises. The problem is measuring merit—standardized tests have many problems, and rewarding teachers or schools for inflating grades or passing students who don’t deserve it creates perverse incentives.” – Jennifer Kobernik
      

• “With my extensive experience as a union member, trustee, steward, and president, along with a diverse background in the corporate world and over forty years as a business owner, I believe that across-the-board raises can promote mediocrity.” – Paul Cherry
     

• “I am a teacher, so I voted for raises across the board because I know how hard I work. No one has ever come up with a good way to implement merit-based pay, or I would have voted for that.” – Marta Hollowell
      

• “Replace socialist government schools of depravity with competitive free enterprise schools. Fire all government-employed teachers!” – Barry Williams
      

• “Merit-based salary increases should be the norm in any industry. That’s a no-brainer!” – Priscilla Love
      

• “No raises should be given until the system shows vast improvement in students/victims' reading and math proficiency.” – Milt Shala
      

• “In every other industry, you receive increases in compensation based on your production and value to the business or client.  Government schools are not producing educated citizens for our country. The cost is already out of control, with far too much spent on administration.  If raises are to be given, it should be based on the number of students who are achieving at grade level in reading, writing, and math.” – Jennifer Rawson
      

• “Base salary on student performance. Stop lowering the bar.   8th graders reading at a 4th-grade level should equate to ‘half’ their salary, a 50% cut due to low performance.” – Corey Mayo
       

• “Merit should be the way, but based on what? How much they are liked by their students? How many times they volunteer for bus duty? Test scores of their students? Impossible.” – Patricia Forsythe
       

• “Merit-based raises might be a good way to make the less effective teachers move back to California.” – Grady King
      

• “Until the quality of education has increased, teachers do not deserve a raise.” – Becky Carothers
       

• “Another raise?? What about the rest of us? In the small town I live near, the teachers of the public schools are by far the RICHEST people in town.” – David Turner
      

• “Frankly, the dismal results regularly presented by state and federal agencies demonstrating failing student performance, why does any teacher in government-run schools deserve a raise? Taxpayers are NOT getting what they pay for as is, and should not be fleeced further.” – Roger Taylor 
      

• “In today’s educational climate, many students graduating cannot read or do simple math. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers are hired on a merit-based system.” – Molly Choate
      

• “I know a teacher who has a Masters degree and is divorced.  She had three small children, and after they deduct for their expensive health insurance coverage, she can make more money flipping burgers. Just look at how many Texas teachers that are leaving the profession!” – Gary Claxon

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