Educating Lawmakers–The First Meeting
by Kelly Browning, Co-Founder and President
The Experience of Being an Educator and Mother
In December of 2024, community leader and advocate Brittni Austin reached out to the state senator who represents Friendswood, Mayes Middleton, to let him know about the work of Parents for Public Education. Middleton’s office was intrigued and agreed to meet with us to learn more. Within two weeks, Deidre Stevens, Brittni Austin, and I were sitting face to face with Senator Middleton sharing our stories about what it is like being an educator and a mother at the same time. Brittni shared her experiences as a parent witnessing high teacher turnover and how the lack of support for educators who are mothers affects the quality of education for her three kids. I shared what it was like birthing my first child as a new teacher.
While teachers often try to plan to have a child during the summer or near the summer, that isn’t always in our control.
I sure wish I could have such power over when I got pregnant, or when my children got the flu, COVID, or a stomach bug. My sweet first-born son was born in late September of my first year teaching. When people learned of my pregnancy, I was often asked if I planned to continue in my career as a teacher. It was hard for me to understand this question as becoming a mother only enhanced my resolve to be an incredible educator. However, I now know what they meant and why they asked it. As public education stands now, it is nearly impossible to be a teacher and a mother simultaneously. Teaching is no longer a family-friendly job, and we aim to fix that.
After my first son was born, I was docked around $8,000. I was unable to take the full 12 weeks of maternity leave since I had not been employed for a full 12-months; therefore I was ineligible for FMLA. I returned to teaching when he was 6 weeks old. I only had 10 days of PTO at the beginning of the year and had to use some of those days for prenatal appointments since teachers have zero ability to flex their time. In many workplaces, one can go to a 30-minute doctor’s appointment without having to use PTO. They can use their lunch time for such visits, leaving more PTO in the bank for things like births, adoptions, hospitalizations, and even a vacation or two if they’re lucky. Teachers do not have such luxuries.
Educating Lawmakers on Teachers' Struggles
Parents for Public Education educates lawmakers on the plight public educators face. Being a teacher requires a four-year degree, and while 76% of teachers are female, there is no flexibility to support young women in the profession. Most other professions which require a four-year degree have some kind of support to encourage women to grow their families without sacrificing their careers.
If we want women to have more children, if we want families to adopt children out of foster care (more on that later!), we must be willing to support women to do so, especially women who are educators.
In that initial meeting, Middleton asked lots of questions and informed us he was unaware that teachers were not included in the paid parental leave bill that passed in the 88th legislative session. He let us know he would work on it. We took a picture and left the meeting feeling hopeful and also aware that the likelihood of anything actually coming from that meeting would happen.
Fast forward to January… Middleton’s office reached out to us to let us know they were working on a bill to provide teachers the same parental leave benefits that are available to all other state employees. We were thrilled to hear that and also skeptical given our newness and advice from many others to expect nothing to actually happen . . . and then we went to Austin . . . . To be continued!
Kelly Browning, M. Ed. - mother, educator, and co-founder
Kelly is a mother, educator, and the founder of Parents for Public Education. You can read more about her on the Meet the Team Page, or reach out to her at kelly@parentsforpubliceducation.org.
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