While school was out this summer, teachers across Texas were sounding off about why their jobs have become so hard. Years of high-stakes testing, chronic under-funding and news stories about failing schools have made classrooms an especially thankless place to work. Last year, the Texas Legislature commissioned a survey to get teachers' honest opinions about their jobs. Fewer than a fifth of the state's teachers bothered to reply—a signal, some unions said, of just how deep teachers' mistrust for lawmakers runs.
Sources: Texas Education Agency, Dallas Morning News, TELL Texas Survey, and National Center for Education Statistics.
Illustration by Joanna Wojtkowiak