CHARLOTTE (July 20, 2023) – The Chair of the State Board of Education appreciates North Carolina teachers. And as legislators continue to dicker over the state budget, he says they need to pay teachers better.
“Most of all, we need to compensate them worthy of the profession that all other professions depend upon,” State Board Chair Eric Davis says in an accompanying video.
Average K-12 teacher pay in North Carolina ranks 34th in the nation, and pay for starting teachers ranks 46th1 – that might help explain why the state started the last school year without licensed teachers in more than 5,000 classrooms.
“We need salaries that are competitive, not just with the states beside us, but with every other profession for which we are in competition for the best talent to educate our children,” Davis says.
The State Board led development of a new teacher licensure plan that among many benefits could improve teacher pay. The Board asked the General Assembly to support the effort. But so far, the legislature has not acted on the proposal.2
DAVIS TELLS US how North Carolina teachers enabled him to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and become an Airborne Ranger combat engineer officer.
“I never would have achieved that without North Carolina teachers,” he says. “And yet, I don’t think my experience is so unique.”
He says it’s important to remember teachers of the past, but even more to thank our teachers today.
“There are two competing visions for public education in North Carolina. One labels our schools as failures and would rather send millions of dollars to private schools for the wealthy than to fund our public schools and to pay our teachers appropriately,” Davis says.
“And yet, each spring, in high schools all over North Carolina, our students prove our critics wrong, when our students graduate and thousands of them go to the colleges or universities of their choice, many of them to some of the most prestigious universities in our nation.
“And they all demonstrate that they can compete and succeed with any students anywhere in our country,” he says. Other graduates directly enter the workforce or volunteer for the military.
“Far from a failure, our students are the living embodiment of the positive vision that my colleagues and I on the State Board of Education have for public education in North Carolina,” Davis says.
IN A SECOND video, Davis says the state’s commitment to students includes an effective teacher in every classroom, as well as an effective principal in every school, supported by psychologists, counselors, social workers and nurses.
Teachers and students alike also need an assessment and accountability system that provides timely feedback, he says.
And the state has the money to do it, he says. He notes that North Carolina has a robust economy and is forecast to have a $3 billion budget surplus.
“So we have the resources. We have the commitment,” he says.
“We just need your help in convincing our legislators to choose public education in North Carolina, to pay our teachers appropriately and to invest in our students…. Investing in public education is the best investment you could ever make.”
1 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article274845931.html.
2 https://www.wfae.org/education/2023-07-11/why-north-carolinas-push-to-revamp-teacher-pay-and-licensure-stalled.
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