The Texas State Teachers Association and the Amendment 4 Campaign.

This article focuses on the role that the Texas State Teachers Association has played and was expected to play for the constitutional amendment No. 4 campaign. Students of Texas government have long been concerned with the public apathy characteristic of constitutional amendment elections. Very few amendment elections have brought out a representative number of the electorate. However, on November 6, 1956, marking the successful culmination of one of the most intensive public relations campaigns in the state of Texas, the voters approved a new teacher retirement amendment by the largest total ever accorded any proposal to change the Texas Constitution. The Association took the lead in an extensive campaign for the adoption of this amendment, and, as a result of these efforts, the citizens of Texas approved it by a large majority in November 1936. At a cost of over $10,000, the Executive Committee of the Texas State Teachers Association authorized the hiring of the firm of Wickenden and Associates to make a study of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and to present proposals for an actuarially sound retirement program. The immediate problem confronting those in the Texas State Teachers Association responsible for the campaign, reportedly, was whether to hire professional public relations experts or to use the headquarters staff to direct and organize the endeavor.