HIGH POINT – A poll released last week revealed overwhelming support among Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated North Carolinians for raising public school teacher pay to the national average.
So if it’s a political slam dunk, why don’t legislators do it?
The High Point University Poll found that 85 percent of North Carolinians agree that public school teachers are paid too little.
Further, 73 percent said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to raise average teacher pay in the state to the national average within five years. That included 72 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of unaffiliated residents.1
Though North Carolinians like to think the “thank God for Mississippi” days are long behind us, the state allowed teacher salaries to stagnate during and after the Great Recession until North Carolina ranked 47th in average teacher pay in 2013-14.2
The state’s average teacher salary (which includes supplements provided by counties) has risen 12 percent over the past five years, however, and the NC Department of Public Instruction reported recently that the average salary reached $51,214 this school year.3
Higher education leaders in North Carolina care about pay for K-12 teachers because better teachers prepare better college students, and UNC colleges of education are the single largest source of teachers in North Carolina, providing 44% of the state’s beginning teachers.4
One feeds the other.
Yet the state’s colleges of education saw a 30% decline in enrollment from 2010-2015.5 It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
AT AN EVENT in Charlotte hosted by the Higher Education Works Foundation last October, NC House Speaker Tim Moore told an audience that legislators have worked hard for six years to raise average pay for North Carolina teachers to $50,000.
Legislators have placed a heavier emphasis on raising starting teacher pay to $35,000, and Moore said he hears complaints about new teachers getting larger raises than more experienced teachers.
“That’s a fair question,” he said. “That’s something that we are continuing to invest in.”
Moore noted that North Carolina approved the largest pay increase for teachers of any state last year.6
The National Education Association has not yet released its annual comparison of teacher pay for 2017-18. But despite the increases of recent years, average pay for North Carolina still ranked 35th in the nation and 5th in the Southeast last year.7
“We are where we are, but we’re working to get those up, and we are improving,” Moore said at the Charlotte event. “It’s like anything else – it’s not a problem that happened overnight, and you’re not going to fix it overnight. It takes a long-term approach, and that’s what we’re doing.”8
One obvious competitor for the dollars needed to pay teachers better are the tax cuts Republican legislators have enacted since they took control of the legislature in 2011.
At a recent forum with civic, business and education leaders in Winston-Salem, Moore defended the tax cuts, noting that Forbes recently ranked North Carolina the number-one state in the country to do business.
But he also said he didn’t see a need to continue cutting taxes this year.
“We’ve had great reform,” he said. “We have other tax cuts that are going to trigger and go in this year. I don’t see the need to adopt another round of tax reform this year…. We need to let the dust settle.”9
One business leader at the Winston-Salem event challenged state leaders to follow through with teacher pay the way they have with pledges to cut taxes and put the state’s fiscal house in order.
“Give us a road map, and this state would be so enthusiastic if they were told, ‘In the next four years, we’re going from 35th to 20th,’” businessman John Burress told Moore. “You did it with taxes – why can’t you do it with education?”
“It’s a challenge that every one of us should heed,” Moore replied. “Of the members that I talk to in my chamber … every single one of them recognizes that if we are going to improve as a state, if we are going to improve our economy, if we’re going to improve our way of life, if we’re going to improve our health care, that education is critical. That’s where it starts.”
Though there are systemic problems with broken families, drugs and crime, Moore said, “We are working to try to make sure that every child in this state has a great education.”
Legislators return to Raleigh May 16 for their even-year “short” session to make adjustments to the state budget.
That’s when they’ll have another chance to show just how committed they are to raising teacher pay in North Carolina.
1 http://www.highpoint.edu/blog/2018/03/hpu-poll-nc-republicans-and-democrats-agree-on-education-issues/. The poll of 439 North Carolina adults was conducted Feb. 5-11 and had a margin of error of +\- 4.7 percent.
2 http://www.higheredworks.org/2017/05/nc-education-spending/.
3 http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article203186954.html. http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/fbs/resources/data/highlights/2018highlights.pdf, p. 17.
4 https://ung4.ondemand.sas.com/SASVisualAnalyticsViewer/guest.jsp?appSwitcherDisabled=true&reportViewOnly=true&reportPath=/UNG/External%20Content/Reports&reportName=NCTeachers.
5 https://ung4.ondemand.sas.com/SASVisualAnalyticsViewer/guest.jsp?reportPath=/UNG/External+Content/Reports&reportName=TQD+Enrollment+Trends&appSwitcherDisabled=true&reportViewOnly=true.
6 http://www.higheredworks.org/2017/10/teacher-pay/.
7 http://www.wral.com/nc-average-teacher-pay-surpasses-50-000/17395506/.
8 http://www.higheredworks.org/2017/10/teacher-pay/.
9 http://www.higheredworks.org/2018/03/moore-education/.
John Fussell says
Thank goodness for Gov. McCrory and the Republlican legislature for actually addressing
this need that Democras like Easley and Purdue only paid lip service. The sensible approach the legislature has taken makes plenty of sense. What teachers and others need
to realize that instead of criticizing the tax cuts; they put money into working people’s pockets that in turn support other parts of our economy and not just teachers. While teacher average pay has risen 12% over % years mine has risen 4% over this period. I make well below the average pay and am still a tax payer that supports their salaries. The poll also states high percentages of support of those willing to pay more in taxes for teachers but we don’t know what the small sample size of respondents’ income status
is. As usual no one looks to cut the overspending in “social programs” or maybe the
amounts given to the colleges that could be cut. Always raise taxes with no cuts.
Thanks again to the Republicans for doing what the Democrats couldn’t and wouldn’t.
Does make one wonder about the NEA and other teacher groups that support the wrong
party.
Ann says
I have 30 years plus experience as an educator with a master’s degree. A teacher with 25 years experience and no masters degree makes more than I do! Teachers with 25+ years experience received approximately $300 for their “raise”. An educator with 23 years experience received $2400! My salary has been stagnant for years and is basically on life support.For the experienced teachers to even “:catch up” to the recession and no raises, we would need at least 10% pay increase. Governor Hunt would not have allowed this to happen if he was still in office. It’s not fair to give the majority of the money to the less experienced and leave experienced ones out in the dust! Pay us!