Texas is really feeling their oats ever since the Oklahoma teacher of the year moved to the Lone Star State due to a higher salary and better infrastructure.
Drivers on Classen Boulevard might’ve noticed a new billboard that reads, “Your future is in a Fort Worth classroom. Teacher starting salary $52,000.”
It’s one of several billboards from Fort Worth Independent School District that have popped up in Oklahoma City, Norman and Tulsa, according to KOKH.
Geez, Texas; you don’t have to rub it in our faces. Oh wait; we guess this is par for the course for Texas exceptionalism.
The average starting teacher salary in Oklahoma is $31,919, according to KOKH, but that’s not factoring in the recent pay raise signed by Gov. Mary Fallin. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oklahoma’s average income for high school teacher was $42,270, meaning they will earn an extra $6,369 per year at the low end of the 15-18 percent teacher hike, which is still lower than the starting salary in Fort Worth.
Former Norman High School teacher Shawn Sheehan gained national headlines in 2017 after the 2016 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year moved to Lewisville, Texas, in search of better pay.
Even after the teacher pay raise, the Oklahoma teacher walkout continued in search of better overall funding for schools. Perhaps there will be a day when Oklahoma restores the 7 percent gross production tax on oil and the Oklahoma City Public Schools District will be able to pay for a billboard of their own in Austin.
