On Feb. 11, Gov Pat McCrory addressed teacher pay, an issue that has been of great concern in North Carolina politics for years. The announcement that the state would raise starting teachers’ salaries may sound like progress, but in reality this improvement is minimal at best.
This proposal would raise starting teacher pay by giving teachers with less than 10 years in the classroom a $2,000 annual raise for two years, meaning their salary would rise to $35,000 by the 2015-16 school year.
This may sound great, but it takes the spotlight off of veteran teachers with more than 10 years of experience, meaning North Carolina’s most experienced teachers would not be eligible for any of these benefits or pay increases.
When considering the state budget, it may seem like McCrory has found a way to take teachers off the backburner, but the truth is that veteran teachers are still getting the short end of the stick.
There is nothing more valuable than the education of students and North Carolinians cannot simply accept this proposal as an adequate form of justice.
This proposal is a place to start, but it is not comprehensive enough and it should not be used as a way to get out of giving across the board raises to public school teachers.
North Carolina currently ranks 47th in starting teacher salary in the United States. The proposed $4,000 increase over two years would bring this ranking to 25th. This is indeed good news.
However, considering this pay raise would only affect the 42,000 teachers who have taught less than 10 years, a more far-reaching solution needs to be found that would benefit the more than 81,000 public school teachers in this state.
