N.C. Republicans introduce bill to raise teacher pay, restore master's bonus

North Carolina Republicans filed a new bill to raise base teacher pay across the state and bring back master’s degree bonuses on Tuesday. 

N.C. Rep. Erin Paré (R-Wake) along with three other Republican representatives filed House Bill 192, which if passed would increase teacher’s salaries between $9,000 and $12,000 annually depending on years of experience. 

North Carolina ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of average and starting teacher salary, according to the National Education Association. North Carolina spends, on average, less per student and less on teacher pay than neighboring states like Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina. 

North Carolina revoked additional pay for master’s degree in 2013. 

 “We’re trying to do a number of things in the bill,” N.C. Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) said. “Number one [trying to] signal that we are in favor of, and that we support teachers. And that we recognize that we have a challenge in the pay that we are at now in North Carolina.”

Lambeth said he is cautiously optimistic about the bill’s future. He said he sees lots of support for teachers from parents and aspiring educators, but worries about where the revenue for the increased pay will come from. 

But teachers in the state feel that this bill is long overdue.

“We’re underpaid, but we’re overworked,” Joanne McClelland, an English teacher at Chapel Hill High School for more than 30 years, said. “Any amount of money that they're willing to give public school teachers, I am definitely in favor of.”

Ryn Young was recently accepted into the Master of Arts in Teaching at UNC and will be a teaching fellow for two years in a Title I school before graduating. They are apprehensive about their future teaching in North Carolina. 

“North Carolina is not so kind to teachers a lot of times, so [I’m] maybe not staying here my whole time,” Young said. 

Lambeth said the bill is also an effort to incentivize highly educated young people to become teachers, and to retain them. 

“If all [young people] read is negative, you have to know that at some point it impacts their decision to be a teacher,” Lambeth said. “And then, if they feel like the state hasn't been a good partner with them and paying them fair — you have to wonder, why would they go into teaching when there's so many other opportunities?”

For now, the bill will progress forward and be referred to the Committee on Appropriations, the committee responsible for setting the budgets for federal government agencies. If the committee approves the bill, it will go on to the House Committee on Rules for a vote.

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