The Board of Education in Dare County, North Carolina, voted unanimously to oppose the law recently passed by the extremist legislature that would end career status for teachers, require the board to give a $500 bonus to the top 25% of teachers in exchange for their giving up their career status.
“The Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling for the state to roll back the new policy, which calls for school systems to pick the top-performing 25 percent of teachers for a four-year contract with $500 in annual bonuses if they give up career status.
Career status will be eliminated in 2018, but the bonus money has not yet been included in the state budget, according to the North Carolina Association of Educators.
Career status provides a process and the right to a hearing before an experienced teacher can be dismissed or demoted.
Dare County joins with Wake County and Guilford County in opposing this law, which has angered and demoralized teachers.
North Carolina is losing large numbers of veteran teachers who can’t afford to live on their low salaries. Teachers in North Carolina rank 46th in the nation in salary, a steady slippage in recent years. When Jim Hunt was governor, he brought teachers’ salaries to the national average. But there have been no salary increases since 2008. A teacher in the state must teach 15 years to reach a salary of $40,000.
Dare County cares about its teachers. Unlike the legislature, it doesn’t want to destroy its public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Last week Cumberland joined as well with a unanimous vote against this law and seeking its repeal. The vote occurred in a packed boardroom with over 200 teachers present and a standing room only crowd cheering the discussion and vote. Most of the state’s largest school boards have similarly voted–and in nearly every case–unanimously and without regard to party–and now over 30 Boards have voted to seek repeal of and to fight against this ill-conceived and very destructive law. Rick Glazier
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This policy sounds like it came from the wizards at the Brookings Institution–economists– who seem to be fixated on firing or rewarding 25% of the teachers in a district, every year. They would use a district-wide value-added score to do this triage disregarding differences in grade levels and in subjects. In the NC version of the might 25%, teachers just give up their career status. I propose a 25% reduction in the number of economists and other self-appoined experts who propose teacher-bashing policies See Croft, M., Glazerman, S., Goldhaber, D., Loeb, S., Raudenbush, S.,Staiger, D., & Whitehurst, G.R. (2011). Passing Muster: Evaluating Teacher Evaluation Systems The Brookings Brown Center Task Group on Teacher Quality, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/04/26-evaluating-teachers
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Laura, bear in mind that the head of the Brookings education program is Grover Whitehurst, who was George W. Bush’s choice as head of the Education Department’s research division, now called the Institute for Education Sciences.
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I still can’t get over how cheap the bonus is. Wouldn’t you be embarrassed to put that in a state statute?
“five HUNDRED dollars, ladies!”
They should just give them a gift card and be done with it. They can make it redeemable at a grocery store.
It’s a laughable, insulting opening offer. The US Chamber and ALEC should be ashamed of themselves.
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I know, I wondered how they came up with that oh so enticing amount.
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It is amazing that teachers and people who think are held in such low esteem. $500 dollars do these fools think we come so cheap and would accept this major insult/
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Why are teachers so special that they deserve the guarantee of a lifetime job, without question, when 99% of other state and local government employees don’t have that privilege? Tenure protects bad teachers. Good teachers should not fear for their jobs, rather, they should do what other public employees do, be thankful they have a job, and strive to do it well. I am not against higher pay for teachers. However, I am against teacher tenure, knowing full well NC’s teachers will likely exert enough political pressure to get their way about the matter. Sad.
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@Ray.. what flavor Kool Aid do you drink these days? Try reading a teacher contract to understand the true nature of what tenure means. You are right that good teachers should not fear for their jobs. But then one must define “good teacher” and sadly these days “good teachers” are defined by how much they cost to employ (bottom line) not what learning they inspire in their students.
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I stand behind Harry Truman. If teachers think they are so special when it comes to a job guarantee for life, they are in the wrong profession. And, based upon the way some of them constantly gripe, I’d say more than a few fit that category. Don’t tell me we don’t have bad teachers, I won’t buy it.
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You need to make a correction…You state a teacher must work for 15 years to get $40000. This is not true…our pay has been frozen. There have been no step increases and I cannot advance in pay as I continue teaching.
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Good to know that this community is fighting for the students! When you fight for the well being of teachers, you are fighting for the well being of the students. It is unimaginable that a county could pay its teachers so little when you think of how much time, energy and money is investing in getting the education and certification to teach (and then there are the years put in to the profession to gain experience that can only come with time and dedication to one’s profession). When I think of how much out of personal pocket money I spend on extra supplies for my students because it will benefit them, the respect issue is a source of frustration. I am barely able to do so from a county with an about average salary scale. I do think the nation needs to be on guard as to where Teach For America is being supported though. When TFA comes in to a community, experienced teachers lose bargaining power. A school district can fail to increase low salaries because those calling the shots know that there are plenty of two year teachers waiting to gain employ – aka TFA teachers. NYC has had its share of TFA over the years! It was just in the news that a Maryland mega-millionaire just gave a heap of money to Prince George’s County, MD to support more TFA teachers coming into this district. Just wondering if this NC county hires TFA teachers?
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Ray, instead of being resentful over tenure for teachers, why not look at the bigger picture – the lack of due process for most employees in the United States? These are the factors: “at-will employment,” media presstitutes, concentrated corporate power, destructive trade policies and political leaders who do the bidding of the plutocrat.
This is the result: fear, low, low wages, rampant wage thefts by employers, and resentment against those who make a decent wage and have protections all workers deserve.
Now they’re turning their sights on teachers. Tenure is the shield that protects teachers against arbitrary punishments. After all, we want to encourage students to question,to think for themselves. That’s the last thing the powerful want to see.
Who are the plutocrats going to set their “resentment laser” on once they get through destroying/demoralizing teachers?
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@Eleanor, ‘resentful over tenure’ does not adequately describe my opinion and I doubt the teacher tenure concept could win in a national poll. I have a granddaughter getting ready to go into the teaching profession and I hope she does it with full a full understanding of what to expect. Most teachers do, but many continue to gripe. Why is this?
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