On Feb. 5, 2019, both the Texas Governor and President of the United States delivered high-profile speeches in front of a large audience of lawmakers and the public. In his 2019 State of the State address Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott began by touting the “economic prowess” of Texas.

The U.S. Capitol, where Pres. Trump delivered his State of the Union address, Feb. 5, 2019

Later that same day, in his 2019 State of the Union address, President Donald Trump similarly expressed sweeping admiration for the successes of our American economy. Despite the idea that the foundation of a great economy is a stellar education, our governor and president differed greatly in the amount of attention they focused on educating our children.

Pres. Trump mentioned education twice during his address. In one instance, the president expressed that our schools were overburdened due to immigration. In another, he said, “To help support working parents, the time has come to pass school choice for America's children.” Other than these two remarks, the president gave no other details regarding education.

Standing ovation for teacher pay during Gov. Abbott's 2019 State of the State address

Gov. Abbott spent a large portion of his address speaking on the importance of improving student outcomes. He said that, in order to address low rates of third-grade reading readiness and similarly low rates of college and career readiness, we must target education funding to the people who matter most (other than parents). These are our educators.

According to the governor, nobody plays a more vital role in our children’s education than teachers. He noted in his address that he wants Texas to recruit and retain the best teachers, pay teachers more, provide incentives to put teachers in the classrooms that need them the most, and create pathways to earn a six-figure salary. Gov. Abbott even declared teacher pay an emergency item, along with school finance reform and school safety.

Perhaps we can consider ourselves lucky that education is mostly left up to the states and that - at least for the early weeks of this legislative session - our governor is talking about making teachers and students a priority and not prioritizing harmful distractions such as private school vouchers. As we move forward with the legislative session, it is important to continue making the voice of the teacher heard on topics such as pay, incentives, and recruitment and retention. ATPE members can help by using our tools at Advocacy Central to send messages to lawmakers about these issues and our legislative priorities.