The study, released April 8 by the National Education Association -- an organization that represents 2.6 million educators nationwide, ranked N.C. teacher salaries as 21st in the nation.
Denise Cardinal, a spokeswoman for the NEA, said North Carolina's low teacher salaries are far from unique.
"What we've seen in this report is that over the course of a decade, teachers' salaries, adjusted for inflation, only went up one-half percent," she said. "That's just barely keeping up with inflation, and there were 30 states below that average."
Cardinal said such low salaries have created a nationwide shortage in capable educators, threatening the quality of education in the nation's public schools.
"The single most important factor in how well a student learns is the quality of his teacher," Cardinal said. "It's hard to attract the best and the brightest when the money is not there."
Cardinal said she does not expect a reversal of the the low salary trend any time soon. "Education is one of the first things to go to the chopping block during financial crises because it costs so much," she said.
Vanessa Jeter, a public information officer for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said that although N.C. teachers have seen a significant improvement in salaries over the last five years, the increases have not been enough to raise the state's ranking.
Jeter said that although the state recognizes the problems caused by low teacher pay, she doubts that salaries or the rankings will see any significant increase within the next year because the state's budget crisis threatens to drain funding for education.
"Because of the budget shortfalls, this is probably not the year (to raise salaries)," she said. "We're not happy about it, but we're realistic."
