Teachers among lowest paid in the state
Posted/updated on: April 7, 2026 at 3:16 am
EAST TEXAS — The average base pay for public school teachers in East Texas remains among the lowest, as salaries across the state have dropped in the past five years, a study reports. In a study conducted by the University of Houston Education Research Center, researchers found that the average base pay of traditional public school teachers dropped in the 2024-2025 school year from $66,449 to $62,715, after seeing an increase the year prior.
According to the study, teacher base pay averaged $69,205 from the 2014-2015 school year to 2020-2021. Since then, the average has stayed “considerably lower” at $65,699.
Average Base Pay of Traditional Public School Classroom Teachers (in Constant 2024 Dollars), 2014–15 through 2024–25. Courtesy of the University of Houston Education Research Center.
Two educational service regions encompass East Texas and they have some of the lowest averages across the state.
Region 8 (Mount Enterprise) has the lowest average base pay at $52,415, the University of Houston reports. Region 7 (Kilgore) is not far off, staying in the lower range of average base pay compared to the other parts of Texas.
There’s not only regional differences in pay, however.
The study found that pay differs by community type, as large cities and suburbs see the highest pay in recent years while smaller cities, small suburbs, rural and town areas are lower. Still, the pay from the year 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 dropped across the board, no matter the type of community.
