Texas schools have more teachers than ever, but reports of shortages continue

(The Center Square) – The number of public-school teachers in the state of Texas has increased for 10 consecutive years from 2011-12 to 2021-22.

Yet the media has reported a teacher shortage crisis.

Texas TV station KXAN reported Feb. 24 a story with the headline, “Texas governor’s taskforce takes on teacher shortage crisis in new report.”

However, that report by the Teacher Vacancy Task Force released last month stated, “Texas is employing more teachers than ever before, with a total of roughly 370,000 teachers. In the 2021-22 school year alone, nearly 43,000 new teachers were hired across the state. The number of Texas teachers has continued to increase even as student enrollment has declined due to COVID.”

The number of teachers has increased 13.9% while student enrollment has increased 8.6% from 2011-12 to 2021-22.

There were 370,431 teachers in 2021-22, up from 325,160 in 2011-12.

Josué Tamárez Torres, a Dallas public school teacher who served as the chair of the Teacher Vacancy Task Force, and the Texas Education Authority didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.