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Texas Teachers Personally Lobby Lawmakers

Texas teachers were up early on the first day of spring break working on their lesson plan.  But it wasn't for their students.  

The educators need to convince budget-conscious lawmakers that last session's cuts in school funding need to be restored.  They hope to put a human face on the problem of overworked classroom teachers and how it's affecting our children.

Montserrat Garibay with the teachers’ group Education Austin says, "Unfortunately many of these legislators have never been in a classroom so educating them is very important to us so they can hear our stories and we can convey to them what's happening in the classroom."

Face time is important but it's not always possible as one group of local teachers found out.  The group from Austin ISD and Eanes ISD had hoped to speak with their state rep, Donna Howard, but instead got a sympathetic chief of staff.  

Scott Daigle told them, “We keep adding more and more and more to teachers  and you can do it for a year or two years but eventually there's going to be a breaking point."

The teachers won't know for weeks or even months what effect their visit to the capitol had.  But with their livelihoods on the line, they said they had to try.

By Fred Cantu