Gov. Pat McCrory unveiled a plan to revamp North Carolina's teacher pay scale to predictably mixed reviews Wednesday. Click here to see the material that was handed out at the announcement at N.C. A&T and here for McCrory's press release.
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| McCrory with budget director Art Pope (left) and education adviser Eric Guckian |
I'm eager to hear what you all think of it. Here's a sampling of early reactions from around the state.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison, the first speaker after McCrory to tout the plan, emailed CMS employees Wednesday afternoon voicing support: "I am encouraged about many components of this framework. It allows for more local control in the development of a teacher compensation model and seeks to restore salary supplements for teachers who earn advanced degrees in the subjects they teach. It also builds on the work we have started at CMS to create a comprehensive teacher compensation model and provide additional professional growth and pay opportunities for our valued teachers. ... It is clear that there are a lot of details about the governor’s proposal that need to be developed. This proposal is a solid step toward our goal of compensating teachers better but more work will be required."
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| Jewell |
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| Harrison |
BEST NC, the coalition of business leaders recently created to advocate for public education, offered support while acknowledging that important cost questions remain to be answered. “We finally have a professional compensation plan that allows our most effective teachers to take on leadership roles in their schools and impact more students, without leaving the classroom,” said Venessa Harrison, president of AT&T North Carolina and BEST NC Board member, who spoke at the announcement. Read the full statement here.
State Superintendent June Atkinson, a Democrat, voiced support at the announcement. But the state Democratic party sent out critical statements from the House and Senate Democratic caucuses.
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| B;ie |
From Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake: "The Governor clearly recognizes the need to undo some of the damage that his administration did to education last year. Unfortunately, Governor McCrory and Thom Tillis put teachers in tough spot by cutting an additional half billion dollars from education last year in order to give massive handouts to the wealthy and special interests. It’s time to see action – and not just to relieve some of the hardships teachers have borne thanks to the governor – but a real plan to raise teacher pay to the national average and ensure our students have the best schools in the country.”
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| Hall |
And from Rep. Larry Hall, D-Durham: "Governor McCrory's plan may make for good political talking points, but it simply does not do enough to begin addressing the teacher pay crisis in North Carolina. ... (The plan) does not provide a dedicated plan to raise teacher pay to the national average. All Governor McCrory provided today is an unfunded plan that continues to sell North Carolina educators and students short. ... Our students and teachers deserve more than election year rhetoric and short-term band-aids."
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| Kowal |
CarolinaCAN, which had worked with the McCrory team and posted a plan that included many of the same elements as his proposal, offered support: "This is the first time we've seen a comprehensive proposal that addresses both low base salaries and the state's outdated salary schedule," said Executive Director Julie Kowal. Read the statement and get a link to the group's proposal here.
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| Ebert |
N.C. Chamber President Lew Ebert called McCrory's plan a step in the right direction: "For many years, the NC Chamber has worked to advance education priorities to position North Carolina as the leading state in talent development. As such, we have previously supported Governor McCrory’s push to raise teacher pay to the national average. ... Legislative leaders have also developed innovative ways to compensate our best teachers and we support this approach to make teaching an attractive career path for young people in North Carolina. We commend them for their efforts and hope this sort of innovative education reform will continue."
And Progress NC's Gerrick Brenner panned the plan as an election-year gimmick lacking details on how to pay for raises: "Because of radical tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the state already faces a $445M shortfall. McCrory's new teacher pay plan could add another $100M in expenses, on top of his $200M plan for better pay for new teachers, and $45M for better pay for state employees. McCrory's shortfall could add up to an eye-popping $790M. In his short tenure as Governor, McCrory already has a track record of offering up promises which don't pan out.
Governor McCrory's 2013 budget proposal included a 1% raise for teachers, but that never happened."
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45 comments:
What does the president think? He pretends to be for education but never puts "his" money where his mouth is yet has unloaded trillions in red ink to every other freeloader moocher fraudulent cause in this undeveloping 1st-2nd world nation headed to 3rd world status sooner than later. There is only so much wealth to redistribute.
This is first generation that will do worse than its parents since the nation was officially ratified Sept 1787.
Congrats to the marxist socialist.
Mission Accomplished.
"Honey I Shrunk The Nation"
tv reality showing now in Amerika in full living color.
(Meanwhile professional athletes make 100-500 times more than 30-40 yrs ago)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/opinion/sunday/bruni-america-the-shrunken.html?emc=eta1&_r=1
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/17/professors_in_homeless_shelters_it_is_time_to_talk_seriously_about_adjuncts/
Perdue's 2012 budget requested a 1.8% pay raise for teachers and state employees.
The legislature cut it to 1.2%.
Perdue vetoed the final budget sent to her, which was overridden by the legislature - both Republicans and Democrats voted for the override.
At the time, federal money was cut to the state so part of the "cuts in education funding" came from federal dollars drying up.
What do you think? Of course the responses in the article are partisan and no amount of spending will ever be enough to half of them.
The gratitude for the thing given is in direct value the recipient places on it.
Why not ask those many looking for jobs, what they think?
Why not do a story of a random group of ten graduates from say 5 years ago and then ten years ago from CMS?
See if the results of attending CMS show in their lives, and are what they expected for all that time in CMS.
And then be sure to ask how they feel about this raise.
So who were the teachers that helped design this plan? Yeah, doing to teachers, not with teachers. Hell it's not even created with consultation with the legislature, you know, the ones with the real power. Love Berger's remark about the plan. Tells me all I need to know about where this plan is headed. Great sound bites for teacher appreciation week though...
Real change starts from the bottom and works its way up, just look at the opt out movement.
after reading the comments from some of these Democratic representives, I couldn't help but ask myself, where was all of this concern for teachers when you actually had the power to do something about it. Perhaps my memory is a little fuzzy this early in the morning, but it seems to me the democrats had plenty of chances to address teacher pay many years before Perdue. I find what the democrats are saying to be in incredibly bad taste.
I am not saying the Republicnas are much better, and I have not been especially pleased with what they have done either (increased class sizes, expanding charters, etc), but please at least give the current governor a little credit, at least he is trying. Perdue,Easley and even Hunt before them, did NOTHING and they have no excuse, their party had complete control over all three branches for the vast majority of those terms. In other words, these democrats can spare me this rhetoric because they share in the blame, perhaps even more so that the Republicans!
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/06/analyst-americas-middle-class-falling-behind/?hpt=hp_bn2
The plan is convoluted, relies on many unknown variables, and actually LOWERS scale salaries. It's crazy. NO sane teacher will want to come to this state to work. Crisis looms.
Larry,
Please refrain from blaming schools and specifically teachers for the failings of parents or lack of parents. Your argument is simply unfair, teachers are not miracle workers. The education of a child is a colaboration between the child, the parents and the teachers. When you remove the parental component, the other two components struggle.
and before someone makes this a race issue, it is not, this is an attitude issue, an issue of priorities. The parents who make their child's education a true priority, who take a vested interest and give of themselves tend to have well rounded and succesfull students. The parents at the other end of spectrum who either don't care or blame the teachers, their kids struggle or are merely average. I have seen this scenario play out over and over through being invovled in my children's education.
My daughter is an honors student and has been for many years. We attend many of the teacher parent functions at her school, there is something I have noticed through the years. The succesful students have parents who are actively involved and have consistantly supported their chidlren's teachers.
I think it is a good idea, we have to do something. Why a 3 year delay? Are teachers going to half to wait 3 years? Will this make it 10years with only a 3% raise? Why does CarolinaCan have so much sway? Aren't they new to NC? Will Burger and Tillis pass this plan? Is the 2% going to be lost in committee? Is this real or theater? Why is one plan 30 years and the other 16? Are masters back on the table? What masters count? Will this stop my children's teacher's from leaving? Does this make NC competitive with South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia? Has this plan worked anywhere else? I am glad teachers have been given some hope, but is it just real or just fantasy? As a voter who loves my children's teachers, I'll be watching!!
Anon 8:34am.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/06/analyst-americas-middle-class-falling-behind/?hpt=hp_bn2
Yep.
If you look at that explanation, then you will see that median income growth (FOR EVERYONE, NOT JUST TEACHERS) in the US since 2000 has been 0.3%.
That's with a median income around $50,000/year.
Seems to me that teachers fall roughly in that pay zone, so perhaps they have just been getting paid LIKE EVERYONE ELSE who earns near the median.
Which has basically been the same pay for the past 14 years, when adjusted for inflation.
Why, you may ask?
Now, for the rest of the story...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html
"First, educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades, making it harder for the American economy to maintain its share of highly skilled, well-paying jobs."
Apparently, this is a RECENT PHENOMENON, too...
(So don't blame the old folks, they're actually STILL above par...)
"Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have literacy, numeracy and technology skills that are above average relative to 55- to 65-year-olds in rest of the industrialized world, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group.
Younger Americans, though, are not keeping pace: Those between 16 and 24 rank near the bottom among rich countries, well behind their counterparts in Canada, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia and close to those in Italy and Spain."
Well, there you have it.
Which came first, the lowly paid chickens or the less educated eggs?
Either way, it appears the chickens have come home to roost.
Personal choice of a student and support of an involved loving family is awesome.. Larry's a blamer. He blames teachers for CMS, even though teachers in NC have very little say. He blames teachers for being part of a communist union, even though most teachers in NC have little to nothing to do with unions or any association. Even if they did, there is no collective bargaining and teachers can't strike. That kinds of makes associations or unions useless in a right to work state. Now Larry blames teachers for youth unemployment, witch is actually a national and global issue at the moment. What's next Larry, cancer? Do student's or parents have any accountability for their actions?
Convoluted mess from simpleton McCrory.
I am independent without a dog in the fight. From I read the Democrats pushed for the national average. Beverly, didn't do much but was hit by the great recession and jumped on the Obama race to the top Common Core deal. Then in 2011 the Republicans took over. They didn't kept things frozen and wen with Beverly's plan until this summer. Then they started slashing. They kept common core but got rid off masters pay, cut spending on supplies, text and assistant's. Mcory promised a raise but Tillis and Burger dropped it. This plan looks reasonable but who knows if it will get though Tillis and Burger. I don't like how it's going to take 3 more years. Teachers have gone 7 years in limbo. This will make it 10. I think it's starting to make the state look bad. It's making national news, it makes South Carolina seem more appealing. Something needs to get done and done quick. I travel and haven't seen anything like this anywhere else. 7 years is to much. It's embarrassing. Let's get this done and move on.
Those darned OECD folks and their international "comparisons" have done it again, first with the school kids and now with everyone else:
http://www.oecd.org/education/boosting-skills-essential-for-tackling-joblessness-and-improving-well-being.htm
Progress across generations
Some countries have made impressive progress over recent decades in equipping more people with better literacy and numeracy skills.
Young Koreans, for example, are outperformed only by their Japanese peers, while Korea’s 55 to 64 year-olds are among the three lowest-performing groups of this age. Older Finns perform around the average, while younger Finns are among the top performers, together with Japan, Korea and the Netherlands.
But in England and the United States, the literacy and numeracy skills of young people entering the labour market are no better than those leaving for retirement.
England ranks among the top three countries surveyed for literacy skills among the 55-65 year-olds. But the country is in the bottom three when it comes to such skills among 16-25 year-olds.
American 55-65 year-olds perform around the average, but young Americans rank the lowest among their peers in the 24 countries surveyed.
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H'mm. Anyone see a pattern here?
Why are teachers raises controlled at the state level. In other states, the school districts set are responsible for this.
America and England both have immigration issues.. And the plot thickens...
Norh Carolina has always been top down.
I don't think younger American's as a whole make good choice's..
After many decades of letting NC become overtaxed, Gov. Perdue faced a fiscal crisis. The economy was horrible and taxes were already way higher than neighboring states. So Perdue froze teacher salaries and this freeze carried over to the McCrory administration. McCrory has since cut income taxes and cut unemployment by more than just about any state in the country. Now the state coffers are filling up again and teachers can get a raise. Without a big increase in taxes.
People and businesses are fleeing high tax states. As Margaret Thatcher once said, "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." The Democrats ran out of money and couldn't raise taxes any more a few years ago. Taxes have been lowered and now the state is doing better. It's good to see sanity returning to government.
Didn't NAFTA kill this state? Wasn't the financial crisis a global event? Wasn't NC a boom state prior to the global financial collapse?
I agree 11:24.. Jobs are better than taxes and in the end, jobs will create more tax revenue. I hope teachers do get a raise.
Why do Dems give teachers a free pass for leaving Char-Meck for an extra dollar but Im supposed to just shut up and shell out more and more? Dems have become clueless idealogues.
Shamash,
I enjoy reading your posts, you always present very thought provoking arguments. From my perspective however, I must respectively disagree with your reasoning as to why our income has increased very little over the last 20 years. This is not the result of a lack luster public edcuation system, this is a product of greed, pure and simple. One can start by examining the economic philosphy of President Reagan and that philosphy has remained constant since that time. Keeping this in basic terms, Amercian corporate leaders have sold out the American worker, we have chosen to foresake our own workers for cheap labor over seas. Before I went back to college, I used to work in the manufacturing sector, my former good paying job is now in China ( Bosch Corp closed all of their manufacturing plants across the south). Secondly I now work in the automation sector, we see first hand the pressures, brought upon by stock holders, to keep manufacturing costs down, which inlcudes salaries.
Anon 12:39pm.
While you may blame greed, it's not unique to the US.
Greed will simply send work where it can be done better at a better price.
Greedy people who run companies have and make choices, as do greedy consumers who want to pay less for everything.
We were somewhat insulated from all this "greed" after WWII as simply the largest economy in the world still left standing.
Over time, our relative position has eroded and we are facing the consequences of everyone's greed (including our own) over the decades.
But I don't think greed will ever go away, so it's best to adapt.
Greed may have sent your job to China.
But it didn't send it to Africa.
There's a good reason for that.
In China, Bosch can find educated and/or trainable workers.
Not so much in Africa.
All along we've been behaving as if we are immune to all this, but we are not.
Middle-class jobs and salaries are stagnant all across the US, not just for teachers.
12:39
There have been two Democrat Presidents and Democrats have contolled the House, Senate and White House since Reagan was in office.
Why didn't they change course?
NAFTA was signed by Clinton in 1993 with bi-partisan support.
Democrats took over Congress in 2007 and added the White House along with it until 2010.
Why didn't they change course?
We can have all the Made In America products you want, but you will need to fork over a lot more money to buy them.
Did you know that there are no condom manufacturers left in the US? The last plant closed in 2009.
The US Government could buy condoms from overseas suppliers for 2 cents versus 5 cents from the US maker in Alabama. When the government is buying 500 million of them, you can see why they switched.
There is some corporate greed in the equation, but ask yourself what you're willing to pay more money for and which of your neighbors will agree to do the same.
Anon 11:35am
"Didn't NAFTA kill this state? Wasn't the financial crisis a global event? Wasn't NC a boom state prior to the global financial collapse? "
Different economies have had different results since the mid-1990's (when NAFTA began).
Some were winners and some where losers.
I'd say South Korea was one of the winners.
Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Kia all say so.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that their schools improved a lot during that time, or maybe not.
We can't keep looking at our past performance since WWII and assume that we will always come out on top despite ourselves, though.
Sure, we may be improving, too, but the rate of improvement matters, too.
Especially in a world where just about everyone is "improving" and not digging out of a major calamity of some sort or the other (such as a major war or two).
And we can make all the excuses about "demographics" and educational results we wish, but in the end it's still "our" people (however "poor", "disadvantaged", "minority", or whatever...) vs. "their" people.
And, ultimately, we will see more of "their" people and less of "our" people winning economically.
Those trying to "equalize" or "re-distribute" results will very likely not succeed.
This will be disproportional and "unfair" for sure.
I like to think that my comments inspire others to think and research things for themselves.
But recently I am beginning to wonder about my lofty goals.
9:56 I am not blaming anyone except the school. CMS is the person in charge of the kids during the day. CMS is in charge of the money and how it is spent.
They can either make students conform to a learning environment, or farm it out to those government agencies which can.
I do not need to go house to house making people be great parents. We all can do that by making schools a haven for learning.
Meaning no matter what the situation may be outside school grounds, while there they are there to learn.
10:25 Ditto on what I said above to your comment.
Just reading about the Whitewater Middle teacher who "threatened" her students. My gut is already telling me that she was in the right and the students are in the wrong.
What has happened to education in this country? Is respect not taught at home anymore?
Great idea (25 years too late) and since he cannot fund the increased teacher pay its just gumbo. It certainly will not get the McMayor re-elected which is the point. The broad line up you have pictured with little to no experience is priceless. Gives the idea and the story less meat. Keith W. Hurley
North Carolina faces a problem-- it has frozen teacher salaries for so long and alienated so many from the profession that there is simply no quick fix. McCrory's plan may slow the bleeding, but not much else.
North Carolina produces too few education graduates of its own. Many Northern states-- Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York-- produce far too many, which creates a glut in the job market for the profession in those states. North Carolina has for years recruited heavily from these states for this reason.
However, this also means that in these states schools have a much wider initial talent pool to choose from than North Carolina does. Additionally, their schools pay more. Certainly, higher pay does not a better teacher make, though it does mean that the more highly qualified, effective, and competent STAY THERE WHERE THEY CAN MAKE MORE MONEY.
North Carolina tends to get two types from these states (and please this is a generalization not an attempt at a maxim): those who can't get a job up North because they are not very good or those who are young, want experience, then leave.
Many say that the teaching is simply not good enough in North Carolina to warrant a raise. Leaving aside the validity of that claim, let me point out that THAT IS NOT THE POINT.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the teaching is North Carolina is poor compared to that of other states, thus justifying a lower wage. There are two options, as I see it, for fixing this problem:
1. Improve the quality of the teachers already in your state.
2. Find new, better teachers.
We have been focused on #1, in my opinion, for many years. "We just need to provide the right professional development." "We need better training." "We need accountability". "We need a new framework for learning"... and on and on and on. THIS IS STUPID. Bad teachers don't become good because they have had the right training. Poor classroom managers do not have epiphanies that allow them to magically control children. Lousy educators are lousy and stay lousy and will always be lousy. And their co-workers, administrators, and students will have to deal with them.
"Fine! #2 then!", you say, "Get rid of the dregs! That's what I've been saying for years! Fire the bad teachers!" And replace them with who, exactly? The reason our teachers are not the greatest in the first place is because there is no incentive for great teachers to come here! You are basically imagining that wonderful educators will take a pay cut to move here, stick around long enough to improve the profession as a whole in the state while being compensated less than they could be in another, and finally, ten years later, you will be ready to pay them as much as they could have been making for the last ten if they had stayed put in their original state.
You cannot get rid of the dregs until you can attract more highly qualified people to the state. These highly qualified people could be from out of state, they could be home-grown teacher grads-- it doesn't matter. But the highly-qualified WILL NOT come here or go into education here when they could be making more money elsewhere.
To be pithy, "You get what you pay for."
Socialism does not work. America had great schools when we had great families. I have friends that have taught in South Korea and China. Both have poverty but family support and students attitudes makes all the difference in the world. My friends taught in china. They presented materiel and told the students what chapters to read. No magic strategies or guru witchcraft with data folders. Teachers taught, students listen, homework was done and magic happened, students learned. One of my friends didn't even half to grade work. An assistant of some sort did it. My friends do not teach anymore, they wouldn't do in in the US. Is money the issue, no.. Are teachers to blame, no.. The death of the American family is the problem. Teachers in NC should be given a raise. 7 years is ridiculous. CMS should be broken up and control of schools should be local.
The more important question to teachers is this....When they are placed on this new plan, will they be placed at their current level on the current pay schedule, or will they be placed on the actual years of service they have. For instance, if a teacher has fourteen years of service, but his/her pay was frozen at the ten-year step on the current schedule, will they move to the new schedule as having ten years of experience or 14?
Because of the freeze, there are currently teachers with three to five years' experience earning the same salary as new hires, which is ridiculous. The freeze in salary also affects retirement benefits and longevity pay.
Come on, Gov. McCrory, if you are going to create a new pay schedule, please ensure that teachers are compensated for their actual years of service!
Really Wiley? It's all the fault of Democrats? Republicans have had nothing to do with this? Please.
Both parties share equal blame, period.
And very few see the real issue here: McCrory set out his plan in an attempt to control the conversation.
Tillis won his primary and will be more concerned about his campaign than running the House. Berger's comments show he doesn't particularly care what McCrory has to say.
Once again teachers are caught up in the intra-party shenanigans of the party in power as a bunch of politicians with next to no experience or expertise in educational matters will dictate policy affecting the lives of 95,000 taxpayers who happen to be teachers.
And none of those politicians are thinking about anything beyond the next 2 years. They'll give teachers a 2% raise, implement an unproven and shoddy VAM system to reward teachers for so-called results based off of more testing and then sit back and cackle with glee as more people pile on carping about public education.
Then they'll ratchet up vouchers and charters and pat themselves on the back and walk away smiling because they got theirs. If you don't get yours it's because you're lazy pure and simple.
Meanwhile any child who's not yet 10 will be caught in this crossfire trying to figure out how to get through school successfully and afford college while also wondering why every year more and more of their teachers walk away.
And yet when those students graduate high school and become adults, they'll be greeted with cynicism and labeled lazy and ignorant. But all those politicians....what do they care, they got theirs.
Sondheim wrote it best:
Careful the things you say, children will listen;
Careful the things you do,
children will see and learn.
@6:08 pm - Unfortunately respect is not taught in all homes. Some students think it is okay to talk nonstop during class, threaten to "slap the crap" out of their teacher or tell them to "shut the hell up." The frustrating thing is when there is no consequence. That student and the classmates come to believe that it's okay because admin does nothing about it. Combine that with the pressure of pay for performance, low pay, and low morale, and you have a very volatile situation. Not saying it's right for teachers to threaten students, but not surprised when they are pushed over the edge.
Looks like they made some cool graphics that do nothing to improve the situation RIGHT NOW. How many more hoops does a teacher need to jump through before they are worthy of an adequate pay increase? ho decides who is "highly qualified"?
Jeff,
Try to keep up.
I've said a half dozen times in the past few articles both parties are at fault for a myriad of issues.
If you see comments of mine directed towards Democrats it's in response to those who only see Republicans as the problem.
Counterbalance.
"Just reading about the Whitewater Middle teacher who "threatened" her students. My gut is already telling me that she was in the right and the students are in the wrong. "
I tend to agree.
Of course, with most "incidents" like this, good luck getting ALL the facts.
Political correctness will see to it that this rarely happens without a fight and the innocent will be punished to protect the guilty.
" I have friends that have taught in South Korea and China. "
It's a real eye-opener, isn't it?
It's just too bad that most people will not see this or understand the dramatic difference in attitudes and results.
They will insist on comparing ourselves to only ourselves and talk about how we've "improved" year after year, so things must be fine.
And yet many wonder why we are losing "good-paying" middle class jobs to foreigners and blame nearly everyone else for this.
The fact is that the rest of the world has caught up with us (and in many cases has surpassed us) in just the skill-sets that are needed to get many "good-paying" jobs we used to get mostly by default.
The whole "middle-class" (which includes most teachers) has been affected by this as well.
The money is just not flowing to OUR middle-class as it did in the past.
Being the "last man standing" after WWII was both a blessing and a curse in that regard.
10:20pm - AGREE! The inmates are running the asylum.
Wiley - gotcha, thinking about it a little more I can recall commentary from you that railed against pols of all stripes.
12:13 I don't understand this statement. Are you faulting teachers for leaving and if so why. If my pay was frozen and benefits dropped, I would look for another job. What is the definition of a dead end job?
My problem with that argument smash 2:21, is many countries set up protection for certain sectors of their economy. We do not. We do subsidize farming but we seem to he open to free trade where China is not. I understand your Bosh argument but Boeing, witch has some of the tightest or toughest machinist spec's in all industry has kept it's manufacturing base in the US. I believe companies will get the workers they need when the economics is right. Is it true since the Carter administration, government subsidized company's to relocate manufacturing hubs to overseas locations? Do you think we have trade deals that help large groups of Americans or just the CEO class? Do you think China and India get many of the textile mills and factories because of education or lack of regulation, safety protections, child labor laws, EPA, ext...? Thank you for your post. I find the information informative.
Schools are a reflection of our society. If they are sick, we are sick. Trying to act like schools are in a bubble is foolish. As a country we need to turn away from DC, and turn back to our families and towns. I see your points and I appreciate your post, but in the end, schools are not going to fix our nations ills.
The US economy has been out of a recession since March 2009.
A person in New York makes $38,000 in their WELFARE benefits package.
A 6th year teacher in Charlotte makes $35,000 with limited benefits.
NC is and will be decades behind in education NO MATTER what the legislature has on the education agenda at this point.
You get what you give !
My husband and I are both teachers and were "drafted" from the north almost a decade ago. I already had a teaching job and left the north to teach in North Carolina. We have both proven ourselves to be highly qualified and very effective at what we do. This is the year for us. If North Carolina does not get its act together on teacher pay, both of us are leaving and crossing the border into South Carolina. A 2% pay increase will NOT be enough to keep us. BOTH of our pays have been frozen. We have cut back, worked extra jobs and sold things from our house in order to make ends meet. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We have jumped through enough hoops. North Carolina is 51 (includes the District of Columbia) in teacher pay growth, 48th in starter teacher pay, and 46th in average teacher pay. How much worse does it need to get? In the end it is not about the teachers, it is about the children who have lost the highly qualified and effective teachers.
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