In June of 2025, West Texas A&M University (WT) announced its Educator’s Excellence Initiative (EEI), which gave Region 16 educators a 50% reduction in tuition and fees. In September, the initiative was expanded to Regions 17 and 18, as well as all 1A and 2A schools in Texas.
EEI includes full-time teachers, administrators, librarians, school nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals, substitute teachers, ESC employees and homeschool educators. The initiative is available for WT’s 66 undergraduate and 44 graduate programs, which include agriculture and education doctoral programs. Recipients of EEI are eligible to take classes in various formats, including on-campus, online and evening classes.
According to the Director of University Communications and Media Relations, Chip Chandler, EEI follows a similar discount that WT rolled out in years prior. “We’ve had 391 people take advantage of the 50-percent off waiver for employees and dependents since it launched in May 2022,” Chandler said. “Since the Educators Excellence Initiative launched in June, 262 students have enrolled. The expansion to Regions 17 and 18 and 1A and 2A schools goes into effect with the January 2026 semester.”
While the numbers will continue to fluctuate as more educators take advantage of the discount, EEI is an incentive to grow the number of public educators in the state of Texas.
Professor and Dean of the Terry B. Rogers College of Education and Social Sciences, Dr. Gary Bigham, explained why the initiative was rolled out for educators compared to other professions.
“I don’t think it’s any secret to anybody that there is a nationwide shortage of teachers,” Bigham said. “It’s even been described as an epidemic. Data shows that we’re still in a shortage in Texas… We’re partners in this thing together,” added Bigham. “They have a part to play, we [WT educators] have a part to play, and we can’t do it without each other.”
WT President Dr. Walter Wendler explained the purpose behind extending the discount to 1A and 2A schools.
“This is very important to me,” Wendler said. “I really want to pay attention to the needs of people in smaller communities because they get overlooked. This is not a sympathy case or any of that kind of stuff. It’s the idea that part of the Texas economy, a significant part, comes out of the oil patch and off of the feedlots and the ranches that provide food, fuel, and now fiber. These are important industries in Texas, and the way you sustain those industries, for me, is you sustain the small communities.”
WT first began as a teacher’s college, which Wendler explained as the foundation of the initiative.
“WT’s history is as a normal school, a teacher’s college. Education is in the DNA of WT, and it is in almost every university, I would hope,” said Wendler. “But we educated teachers here, and this is an outreach to teachers that says, we appreciate you, we value the work you’re doing, and we want to make sure we help you get to be as good as you can be in service to the families and the kids in the state of Texas, and in turn of course, the state.”
Information about the Educator’s Excellence Initiative can be found on the WTAMU website. For further questions, call the registrar’s office at 806-651-4911 or the admissions office at 806-651-2020.
