WINSTON-SALEM (May 1, 2025) – It’s a forehead-slapper. At a time when North Carolina desperately needs more public school teachers, the Trump administration cut them off.
In February, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would terminate more than $600 million in grants for teacher recruitment and retention programs in Title 1 schools – schools in low-income neighborhoods where teacher turnover is particularly high. The administration said they were training teachers in “divisive ideologies.”
In North Carolina alone – from Elizabeth City, Warren and Tyrrell counties to Winston-Salem, Troy and Charlotte – it will cost at least $90 million.
To recruit teachers. To our poorest schools.
“This program is putting the very best teachers, who are typically snatched up by the highest-performing schools, to work in Title I schools,” Kate Allman, the executive director of Winston-Salem TEACH, told The News & Observer.1
WS-TEACH, a collaborative effort between Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, Wake Forest University and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, relied on $4.7 million in grant money for 80% of its operating funds. That included stipends for aspiring teachers who agreed to spend at least three years teaching at a Title I school.
”Strong educators are needed now more than ever, particularly in our Title I schools,” Allman said.
Winston-Salem’s Title I schools have double the statewide teacher turnover rate and almost twice the turnover rate of non-Title I schools in the city, she said.2
“There is a very large teacher shortage that has impacted the Winston-Salem area, and that became even more significant after Covid, particularly in our Title I schools,” Allman told WRAL.
WS-TEACH was designed to help new teachers and address factors that often fuel turnover.
“It was designed to address the root causes of teacher turnover in Title I schools, which are often inadequate preparation, lack of sustained support and financial insecurity,” she said. “So this program directly meets those three causes.”3
MEANWHILE, ONE IN 10 North Carolina teachers left the classroom in 2023-24. Enrollment in public colleges of education has plummeted over the past decade. And schools are hiring increasing percentages of uncertified teachers.
And new rankings released this week placed average teacher pay in North Carolina at 43rd in the nation, and lower than all our neighboring states.4
Think that has something to do with our diminished pipeline of future teachers?
Rural districts – which already struggle to recruit and retain K-12 teachers because their supplements to state pay aren’t as generous – will be particularly hard hit by cuts to teacher training.
“We just don’t have in rural areas the large amount of tax base,” Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Superintendent Keith Parker told the N&O. “There’s less that rural communities can contribute locally. That’s why rural areas rely on federal funding.”5
IN EARLY APRIL, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to cut the funds for teacher training as a lawsuit makes its way through the courts.
It was an unusual decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court’s three liberal justices to oppose the ruling.6
Lauren Fox, a researcher with the Public School Forum of North Carolina, told WRAL she hasn’t seen anything “divisive” in her work with programs in North Carolina supported by the federal grant funds.
“We know that teachers are the number-one school-related factor that impacts student outcomes, and these programs are aimed at ensuring that all children in North Carolina have access to excellent educators,” she said.
“And I don’t think that’s a divisive thing.”7
No, it’s not.
But canceling support for teachers of our state’s and our nation’s most vulnerable children is an unconscionable thing.
1 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article300541584.html.
2 https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/winston-salem/winston-salem-teach-loses-federal-funding/.
3 https://www.wral.com/news/education/teacher-training-retention-grants-canceled-in-nc-february-2025/.
4 https://www.wunc.org/education/2025-04-29/teacher-pay-ranking-drops.
5 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article300541584.html.
6 https://www.wral.com/story/supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-to-cut-teacher-training-money-for-now/21944724/.
7 https://www.wral.com/news/education/teacher-training-retention-grants-canceled-in-nc-february-2025/.
Leave a Reply