Houston is losing teachers. Across Texas, sixty-six percent of teachers are strongly considering leaving the profession. Eighty-seven percent cite high levels of work-related stress. Nearly 80% point to poor pay and benefits, and feeling undervalued, as major factors. Teachers are being asked to pour everything into the future of this city while too often running on empty themselves.
That is not sustainable. And it is not acceptable.
Every number we track at Good Reason Houston, every percentage point of growth, every student who earns a postsecondary credential, every graduate who lands a living-wage job, starts in a classroom. And in that classroom, there is a teacher. Houston’s teachers deserve more than a week. They deserve a city that sees them, invests in them, and fights for the conditions that make it possible for them to stay and lead.
We know the stakes. Only one in five Houston-area public school graduates currently earns a living wage six years after finishing high school. Our North Star Goal is to double that rate by 2040 and that is an enormous charge. It cannot happen without a strong, supported, stable educator workforce. Teachers are the single greatest school-based factor in a student’s academic success. That finding is central to how Good Reason Houston approaches this work.
What Genuine Appreciation Looks Like
Shawn Bingham, a teacher and member of Houston Loves Teachers’ inaugural Teacher Leadership Cohort, put it plainly when asked what meaningful recognition looks like versus what tends to fall flat.
“I think something genuine, like something heartfelt,” he said. “What comes from the heart reaches the heart. A lot of people just check the mark off the box.”
He described going beyond a standard appreciation gesture for his school’s bus drivers: having every student write a handwritten thank-you note. He then named what truly sustains him: “My ‘thank you’ is seeing my students every day coming in here. My ‘thank you’ is going to be on May 29th when they graduate and walk across that stage.”
That is the heart of what we are trying to protect and strengthen; teachers who show up every day not because the conditions are easy, but because they believe in their students and in what’s possible. Our job, as an organization and as a city, is to make sure those teachers don’t have to choose between their passion and their wellbeing.
Investing in Teachers as Leaders
This year, Good Reason Houston and Houston Loves Teachers made a deliberate choice: to invest in teachers as leaders who are shaping what comes next.
That choice took shape as the Houston Loves Teachers Teacher Leadership Cohort, an inaugural group of 18 educators from across the Houston region, representing Aldine, Alief, Alvin, Fort Bend, Houston, Klein, and Pasadena ISDs, as well as Etoile Academy, KIPP Texas, Harris County Department of Education, and Amigos Por Vida.
These educators didn’t just participate in a program. They grew. Every single cohort member reported meaningful growth in confidence and leadership, an average of +1.5 levels on the leadership scale, moving nearly one-third of the entire range in a single year.
Sherita Harmon, a cohort member from Alief ISD, described what the experience opened up for her: “HLT helped highlight the fact that you don’t have to have the title of a leader to be considered a leader. Yes, teachers, every single day in the classroom, we are leading.”
Mariell Edwards, from Etoile Academy, reflected on a moment of unexpected solidarity: “Collaborating with other educators and realizing that many of us share the same similar challenges and goals. That moment reminded me that I am not alone in the work that I do.”
And Marcela Gomez, from Amigos Por Vida, described a moment when her peers named something she hadn’t fully seen in herself: “They told me how they saw me… ‘There is someone that has shown us how to balance the data and the people that we serve.’ I felt seen. I felt honored.”
This is what happens when teachers are given the space, the support, and the community to lead. They grow individually and go back to their schools and change the culture around them.
What This Means for Houston’s Students
When we invest in teachers, we invest in every student they teach, every year, for the rest of their careers.
Cohort members are already putting their leadership into practice. Their capstone projects, real solutions to real problems in their schools and communities, include initiatives focused on teacher belonging, educator sustainability, parent engagement, and stronger connections between teachers and career pathways for students. These are teachers who are reconnecting people, leading change in their schools, and strengthening the systems around them.
For their students, this translates into more stable classrooms, stronger instruction, and teachers who are energized and committed to staying.
For Houston, investing in teachers is one of the most concrete ways to move toward the future we are working to build together.
Our Commitment
Bringing coffee carts to campuses this week is one small, human gesture. But it comes with something larger behind it: a genuine commitment, from this organization and from this city, to fight for the conditions that make teaching sustainable, meaningful, and worth staying for year-round.
To every teacher in Houston: thank you.
Are you a Houston-area teacher ready to step into leadership?
Applications for the 2026-2027 Houston Loves Teachers Teacher Leadership Cohort are now open. The deadline to apply is May 16. Apply here.
