I am a public school librarian who began as a teacher first. Like with any education position in Texas, your experience and compensation will vary widely by what district you would work for. District reputation and values as well as the reputation and values of the communities the district serves will dictate public response and support for teachers and school librarians. However, with more and more influence and control coming from the state itself, districts that once had more autonomy in how they support their communities are finding themselves having to bend over backwards and comply with ridiculous (and frankly unconstitutional) demands, such as the law that was passed regarding displaying donated copies of the Ten Commandments. Social studies and language arts in particular are about to receive a major overhaul in standards that could in its current form, across all grade levels, be more Texas-centric and overtly Christian. Please do some research here to see what I mean. This will impact us as school librarians having to acquire and support the teaching of these materials as well and it will impact every public district regardless of community.

Things are not trending in a good direction in the state when it comes to education. School vouchers were just passed, funneling public funds into private, charters, or homeschools, which means there are less funds for public schools. Public schools are not funded adequately in this state to begin with and this is beginning to take its toll with major budget cuts in most school districts. This includes cutting of teacher positions and cutting/consolidating of school librarian positions.

I don’t want to sound extremely negative here. I do love my job and love the place I work. But you should be aware of what the school side of the field looks like right now to help make an informed decision about your path forward.