RALEIGH (December 19, 2024) – As he mounts an effort to raise teacher pay in North Carolina, incoming State Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green knows it will take a team.

In any of the things he will do as state superintendent, he says in the accompanying video, “I’m not going to be doing them by myself. So this is going to take, as I like to say, ‘the voices of the many’ to try to encourage our General Assembly to think differently about how we fund schools, and in particular, how we pay our educators.”

First, Green says he wants to listen to legislators about why they haven’t funded public schools better. The state ranks 42nd in starting pay and 38th in average teacher pay, and it was projected to rank 41st for 2023-24.¹

To improve teacher pay, the state might need to “peel back” the way it “piecemeals” teacher pay and take a new approach, he says.

Green shows humility about his own influence.

“Again, it will take the voices of the many,” he says. “What I will say to the General Assembly may or may not work. But maybe then what is said by someone else will.”

Let’s hope so. This state owes an enormous debt to its public school teachers.

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¹ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article288227865.html.