Dear Texas Teachers,

As Teacher Appreciation Week arrives, I am thinking about this moment both as a former teacher and as the parent of a school-aged child. I know many of you are entering one of the busiest and most emotional stretches of the school year. Testing season is coming to a close, yet you are still working to keep students engaged and motivated while managing events, field trips, celebrations, and the many milestones that mark the end of a school year.

This week has made me reflect on the teachers who shaped my life. The teachers who saw something in me before I saw it in myself. The teachers who challenged me, supported me, encouraged me, and held me accountable for becoming the person they knew I was capable of being. Their influence did not end when I left their classrooms. It stayed with me and shaped the way I understand education, leadership, and opportunity. This is part of the power and responsibility of teaching.

I began my career as a middle school special education teacher. I know firsthand how rewarding, demanding, and consequential teaching is. Teaching requires content knowledge, pedagogical expertise, preparation, judgment, patience, adaptability, empathy, and care. It requires the ability to plan carefully and respond in the moment. It requires teachers to understand students, build trust, and make countless decisions in real time every day.

That is why Teacher Appreciation Week matters. It creates an opportunity for us all to pause and recognize work that is too often taken for granted. Teachers do far more than deliver instruction. You create the conditions for students to learn, grow, feel known, and begin to imagine futures for themselves. You help students build knowledge, confidence, discipline, and a sense of belonging. Those contributions are not always immediately visible, but they accumulate over time in the lives of students, schools, families, and communities.

Across every role I have held in education, I have seen the same truth affirmed again and again: strong schools depend on strong teachers. The future of Texas depends on the people who choose to teach.

At the Charles Butt Foundation, our commitment to teachers is central to who we are. Through Raising Texas Teachers and our broader work to strengthen the teaching profession, we are committed to elevating teacher voices, supporting strong preparation, strengthening the teacher pipeline, and helping ensure that teaching is recognized for the skill, expertise, and commitment it requires.

Teacher Appreciation Week gives us a moment to say thank you. But appreciation should not be limited to one week. It should be reflected in the respect we give, the encouragement we offer, and the support we provide throughout the year.

On behalf of the Charles Butt Foundation, thank you for giving so much of yourself to the students, schools, and communities you serve. We see you. We appreciate you. Our communities and our state are stronger because of you.

With gratitude and respect,

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Everyone has a story about a teacher, or multiple teachers, who changed their life. Throughout their careers, teachers impact hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people and change not only individual lives, but also families’ trajectories. They spark imaginations, unlock hidden talents, inspire students to realize what’s possible, and build strong foundations for the future.

The Charles Butt Foundation’s Voices on Teaching series features diverse perspectives about the importance of the teaching profession and personal stories about teachers who helped give rise to the future.