RALEIGH (March 1, 2023) – North Carolina will finish the current budget year with $3.25 billion – 10.7% – more revenue than it budgeted for the year, state economists reported last month. The consensus report from economists for the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office attributed the additional funds to a smaller-than-expected decline in individual… READ MORE
Our hopes for 2023
RALEIGH (January 4, 2022) – With the elections and the holidays behind us, Higher Ed Works has some hopes for the new year. North Carolina is not investing in public education to keep pace with its No. 1 business climate1 ranking. The state ranks 49th for the percentage of its gross domestic product it devotes… READ MORE
K-12: Symptoms of lousy pay
RALEIGH (September 29, 2022) – Imagine you’re a ninth-grade math teacher with 36 students in your class. Beyond the histrionics and hormones that rage at that age, just how much attention can you give each of those kids? Yet with thousands of empty teacher jobs across the state, such class sizes happen even in 2022… READ MORE
Where We Stand: Underfunded
RALEIGH (September 15, 2022) – North Carolina is on a roll winning new – and future-oriented – business. We’ve seen big job announcements over the past year from household names like Toyota, Apple and Google. We should be proud of that. Between the Triangle and the Triad, we see an emerging corridor that will focus… READ MORE
4,400 invisible teachers
RALEIGH (September 1, 2022) – More than 1.3 million students started the public school year in North Carolina this week. Yet more than 4,400 teachers who should have been at the front of those children’s classes weren’t there, because school officials couldn’t fill the vacancies. And 3,600 more teachers across the state still aren’t fully… READ MORE
Don Martin: A middle ground on teacher pay plan?
EDITOR’S NOTE: With school set to resume soon across North Carolina with thousands of teaching positions still vacant1 and a new pay plan being floated for K-12 teachers, Don Martin, retired superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, shares his views about the plan. WINSTON-SALEM (August 10, 2022) – In 2020, the Forsyth County Commissioners asked… READ MORE
Can No. 1 in business be No. 1 in education?
RALEIGH (July 21, 2022) – North Carolina won bragging rights last week when CNBC named it the No. 1 state in America for business. It’s an honor of which we should be proud. The network praised state leaders for putting aside sharp partisan divisions to present a united, bipartisan front when recruiting new business to… READ MORE
A pay cut
RALEIGH (July 6, 2022) – With the 2022-23 budget they unveiled and adopted last week, state legislators simply aren’t taking care of their people – our people. The state has a $6.5 billion revenue surplus this year. Let that sink in: $6,524,141,444.00.1 Yet this state continues to systematically underfund public education. By one estimate, the… READ MORE
$6.2B NC surplus: Make education a priority again
RALEIGH (May 18, 2022) – As the NC General Assembly reconvenes today with a $6.2 billion state budget surplus, it’s time to make education a priority again in North Carolina. Officials announced last week that the state will take in $4.24 billion more than projected in the budget year that ends June 30 – a… READ MORE
NC teacher pay: Keep going
RALEIGH – We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Teacher pay in North Carolina is headed in the right direction. The National Education Association released estimates in March that indicate average pay for North Carolina’s K-12 public school teachers now stands at $53,975, ranking North Carolina 29th among the states.1 That’s an increase… READ MORE