Lawmakers agree on one thing: They want Texas' teachers to get paid more.

Exactly how remains to be seen.

One high-priority bill out of the Senate would give an across-the-board pay raise of $5,000 to each teacher in the state.

Meanwhile, the state's school finance commission recommended that Texas set aside money for districts that implement a pay-for-performance salary system similar to Dallas' so that teachers have a realistic path to reach a six-figure salary without leaving the classroom.

"We're putting teachers first this session," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during the beginning days of session.

But what does teacher pay look like now?

Much of it depends on where an educator teaches and for how long.

The average state salary was roughly $53,335 in the 2017-18 school year, according to recently released data from the Texas Education Agency.

That puts Texas near the middle of the pack in the nation for teacher pay, according to the most recent report from the National Education Association. The Lone Star State also has a much lower cost of living than many other states do. Those factors have positioned some districts in the state to successfully recruit teachers from places like Oklahoma.

But rural areas of Texas continue to struggle. They tend to have the lowest teacher pay with the median starting salary at $33,610. That's about $17,000 below what major districts like Dallas and Fort Worth can pay.

Such districts received a win during the special legislative session in 2017. Lawmakers gave a small bump in funding for small districts that are under 300 square miles in size. School leaders from such districts have said increasing that formula is key to helping them afford higher salaries to be competitive.

But some could face losing that increase of money.

The commission has recommended lawmakers reconfigure such funding, adjusting for those districts that are small by necessity and those that are by choice. Still other recommendations could help offset such a decrease, such as providing more money to educate students most in need of additional resources — such as English-language learners or those from low-income families.

Now charter schools have the lowest median salary at $43,848, but the starting pay at such schools is significantly higher than in rural districts.

Most teacher pay scales across Texas are based on teacher experience. And the median years of experience for a charter teacher is six years, half of what it is at traditional districts.

Charters are public schools operated separately from a traditional school district and free from many regulations. For example, state law does not require charter school teachers to be certified except in special education or bilingual programs.

The North Texas and Houston areas tend to compete for some of the highest teacher salaries in the state because of their large concentration of urban and suburban districts.

The Houston area had the highest median salary at $54,236 while the Dallas-Fort Worth regions came in at just below $50,000.

But some areas along the Texas-Mexico border also reported high salaries. Around Edinburg and El Paso, median salaries top $50,000. That's partly because the are also the two areas with the longest average in-district tenures with both coming in at nearly 10 years.

Meanwhile, as lawmakers debate salary, they're likely to also hear from educators about the growing costs of healthcare and strains on teacher pensions.