Great news, Texas taxpayers! State officials have finally identified the real crisis threatening our schools: highly qualified teachers receiving modest bonuses for helping kids learn. The State Board for Educator Certification voted to demand that the National Board Certification program scrub all mentions of diversity, equity, and inclusion from its training materials by November 2. If the national organization doesn’t fall in line, Texas will yank those teachers out of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, effectively stripping them of annual pay raises worth up to $9,000.
Texas Tech University—our very own local institution right here in Lubbock—published a report showing that students taught by these nationally certified educators gain an extra 3.5 months of math learning and 1.5 months of reading growth per year. The report also found an 18% drop in student suspensions and a 10% decrease in chronic absenteeism, recommending that Texas keep the credential in place. But apparently, actual academic achievement and keeping kids in class take a backseat to policing whether a training scenario accidentally hints that children come from different backgrounds.
The state certification board claims its hands are tied due to state laws passed by Republican lawmakers aiming to purge classrooms of DEI and gender identity references. After hiring six reviewers to comb through the credentialing materials, the state admitted the program complied with nearly all legal standards. Yet, a few vague example scenarios of exemplary teaching were flagged, leading officials to issue an ultimatum. The CEO of the National Board noted that in 40 years of operation, no other state in the country has ever demanded anything like this.
Out of 382,000 teachers across Texas, less than 1% hold this rigorous, five-year national credential. For many instructors teaching non-core subjects, this certification is literally the only way to access state performance bonuses. Yet Texas seems more than ready to throw those 620 top-performing educators under the bus if a national board doesn’t rewrite its curriculum to satisfy state politicians.
Who needs better reading scores and lower suspension rates when you can score cheap political points at the expense of overworked teachers?
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