Can a Texas teacher soon make $100,000 a year?

In his address to Texas on Tuesday, Governor Greg Abbott made an ambitious proposal.

“We must create a pathway for the best teachers to earn a six-figure salary,” Abbott said.

El Paso educators took issue with his recommendation.

“It sounds nice, but the reality is, very few if any actually get that $100,000 you’re talking about,” said Ross Moore, El Paso’s president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Moore told ABC-7 that it would lower most teachers’ pay and harm the public schools in Texas.

“It actually pits teachers against teachers, trying to get rid of the kids that are hard to teach,” Moore said.

Increasing teacher pay was one of Abbott’s six emergency items in his state of the state address. With emergency items, legislators can pass bills immediately, instead of waiting sixty days.

“I don’t know how they would be able to tell a really good teacher from a not-so-good teacher,” said Frances Wever.

Wever spent a combined 40 years teaching and serving as the president of the El Paso chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Pay has changed tremendously since she started teaching in September of 1964.

“The year that I started, I made three thousand dollars,” Wever said.

Abbott’s six emergency items in Tuesday’s address included:

More funding to schools Increasing teacher pay Lowering property taxes More funding for mental health Making schools safer Improving response to disasters