The Houston ISD teacher raises lawsuit, filed in summer 2025 by the Houston Federation of Teachers, challenges the district’s decision to pay state-funded teacher raises based on evaluation scores rather than years of experience. A Harris County judge granted a partial temporary injunction against HISD in September 2025, and the case is tentatively set for trial on August 17, 2026.1Houston Chronicle. Houston Federation of Teachers Court Pay Raises
What HB 2 Requires
House Bill 2, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2025, created the Teacher Retention Allotment to fund salary increases for experienced classroom teachers. For districts with more than 5,000 students, the law provides $2,500 per year for teachers with three to four years of experience and $5,000 per year for teachers with five or more years. The money must be folded into base salary, not paid as a stipend or lump sum.2Texas Education Agency. HB 2 Implementation: Teacher Retention Allotment and Support Staff
HB 2 does carve out one exception. Districts approved by the Texas Education Agency as “Enhanced Teacher Incentive Allotment” systems may distribute retention funds based on teacher performance instead of experience. Qualifying requires a “fully approved local designation system” for evaluating and rating teachers.3ATPE. Understanding the TRA and SSRA Whether HISD actually meets that standard is the central factual dispute in the case.
How HISD Distributed the Money
Under state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles, HISD announced it would tie HB 2 raises for the 2025-26 school year to teachers’ scores on the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System. The raises ranged from $250 to $2,500 by performance tier, with teachers at the district’s “New Education System” campuses receiving smaller amounts than those at traditional schools.4Houston Public Media. Houston ISD Releases State-Funded Teacher Performance Pay Increases At a non-NES school, a teacher rated “Exemplary I” would receive $2,500, while a teacher rated “Progressing I” would receive $500.
HFT President Jackie Anderson said the union contacted the district in early July 2025 after HISD capped raises at $2,500 and withheld the additional money the statute directs to teachers with five or more years of experience. When the district did not respond, the union filed suit.5Houston Public Media. Teachers Union Sues Houston ISD Over Performance-Based Pay Katy ISD, Fort Bend ISD, and Cy-Fair ISD all used the funds for straightforward experience-based raises, making HISD an outlier among large Houston-area districts.4Houston Public Media. Houston ISD Releases State-Funded Teacher Performance Pay Increases
The Union’s Legal Argument
HFT’s case rests on two linked claims. The first is that HB 2 requires large districts to pass the Teacher Retention Allotment through to teachers as experience-based salary increases. The second, more specific claim is that HISD cannot invoke the Enhanced TIA exception because the district does not have a “fully approved local designation system” on file with the TEA.1Houston Chronicle. Houston Federation of Teachers Court Pay Raises
HFT attorney Manuel Quinto-Pozos cited TEA data showing that while HISD’s application for the general TIA program had been accepted, the district did not appear on the agency’s list of fully approved local designation systems. The Enhanced TIA pathway itself is still being built out. As of mid-2025, TEA had not published the formal application for Enhanced TIA designation and planned to release a letter of intent in September 2025 and the application in Winter 2026.6Texas Education Agency. HB 2 Implementation: Teacher Incentive Allotment No district has yet been listed as approved. Earning the status also requires replacing traditional step-and-ladder salary schedules with performance-based compensation and extending those systems to principals.7TIA Texas. Enhanced TIA
HISD’s attorney, Paul Lamp, countered that the law sets no hard deadline for full approval and that state guidance accounts for districts working toward the criteria. The district pointed to documentation from its Deputy Chief of Academics, Alyssa Murray Rocha, showing TEA accepted HISD’s TIA application on July 30, 2024, and indicated resubmission was not required despite areas flagged for improvement.1Houston Chronicle. Houston Federation of Teachers Court Pay Raises
What the Courts Have Ruled
On July 30, 2025, Harris County Civil Court Judge Donna Roth denied HFT’s request for a temporary restraining order. Lamp had argued the request was premature because HB 2 did not take effect until September 1 and the district had not yet received the disputed funds.8Houston Chronicle. Houston Federation of Teachers Lawsuit Raises Pay Judge Roth did not explain her reasoning from the bench, according to Quinto-Pozos.9ABC13. Judge Denies Restraining Order, Houston Federation of Teachers Union Lawsuit HISD said the ruling confirmed its pay-for-performance system “followed the law.”5Houston Public Media. Teachers Union Sues Houston ISD Over Performance-Based Pay
The case then moved to Judge Cheryl Elliott Thornton, who held a temporary injunction hearing on August 28, 2025. On September 13, 2025, Thornton issued a partial temporary injunction. She found that HISD’s performance-based distribution “may differ from the ordered usage by the state” under HB 2 and agreed with the union that the statute requires the money to be “passed through or passed on” to teachers as raises.10Houston Chronicle. Temporary Injunction, Houston Federation of Teachers
The injunction is limited. The court ordered that HISD cannot use the state money for any purpose other than its “stated purpose,” but it did not require the district to immediately pay out across-the-board experience-based raises as the union had requested.11Houston Public Media. Judge Issues Partial Injunction Against Houston ISD in Pay-for-Performance Dispute Quinto-Pozos called the ruling a “vindication” of the union’s position. HISD did not respond to press requests for comment on the injunction.10Houston Chronicle. Temporary Injunction, Houston Federation of Teachers
What Happens Next
The partial injunction remains in effect, and the trial is tentatively scheduled for August 17, 2026.1Houston Chronicle. Houston Federation of Teachers Court Pay Raises A second decision point sits in parallel. HISD’s broader plan to move all teacher pay to a fully performance-based structure in the 2026-27 school year requires Board of Managers approval as part of the district’s $2 billion budget. That vote, originally set for June 11, 2026, was pushed to June 25, 2026.12Houston Public Media. HISD Budget Vote Postponed The full performance-based structure would set base pay between $64,000 and roughly $96,000 across seven proficiency levels, with unsatisfactory ratings leading to termination.13Houston Chronicle. HISD Performance-Based Compensation System
Why Litigation Is the Union’s Only Lever
Texas law does not allow teachers’ unions to collectively bargain or to strike. Under the previous elected school board, HFT at least held consultation rights on district policy. The state-appointed administration removed HFT as the primary voice for district teachers in August 2023, leaving the courts as one of the few forums where the union can still push back on district decisions.14Houston Public Media. On Its 50th Anniversary, the Houston Teachers Union Is Growing The Board of Managers itself was installed when the TEA took over HISD in June 2023, and Education Commissioner Mike Morath extended the board’s authority through June 1, 2027.15Texas Education Agency. TEA Announces Extension of Houston ISD Intervention
The trial and the budget vote together will determine whether HISD can keep distributing state money through its own performance scheme or whether it will have to follow the experience-based formula used by nearly every other large district in Texas.