Stuart Egan, a teacher in Clemmons, North Carolina, wrote to tell me that teachers who have been teaching 33 years or more received a pay cut under the new state budget. One friend took an annual cut of $4866.35.
Stuart added the following letter:
Dr. Ravitch,
The following Facebook posting is from a teacher in Cleveland County. Its contents are not that surprising, especially if you have been aware of the North Carolina General Assembly’s actions concerning public schools. It is yet another example of how many in the North Carolina General Assembly view public educators. This only reaffirms Peter Greene’s observation that the North Carolina General Assembly is the most egregious state legislature when it comes to supporting public schools.
Julia Clore-Laurich, a veteran teacher, posts:
I am not an “idiot teacher” for calling State Representative Tim Moore’s office on Wednesday afternoon to voice my concerns about the current budget that is being proposed, yet that was what I was called after the conversation was over and Legislative Assistant Nancy Garriss didn’t realize she had not hung up. Speaking to another staff person, she told him that “some idiot teacher” had called that and that I made her “blood boil.” About that time, someone realized the phone had not been hung up and proceeded to disconnect the line. Of course, I called back immediately. When she answered and I reintroduced myself, she asked if she could put me on hold; I reluctantly agreed. Shortly, a male staffer answered the call and said that Nancy had gone to a meeting. I also got a legal staffer on this call. They apologized, listened politely to what I had to say, offered to have Nancy call to apologize (which I declined), and got my email address.
Having taught for 18 years, I am smart enough to know that the 7% raise that is currently being debated is not 7% for everyone; for step 19, it means 3.31% according to Nancy. I wanted to get on the record and voice my opposition to losing longevity pay. Teachers should not have to give up longevity pay, and I should not have to be grateful to receive a small portion of one of the largest teacher raises in the state’s history that will be funded by giving up what I have already earned. The “wonderful” 7% raise that is being talked about is not so wonderful for the teachers who have put in years of service to the community for the education of young people.
If exercising my right as a citizen to argue that I should not have to give up longevity pay in return for a small portion of the raise that is being debated gets me called an “idiot teacher” by the Legislative Assistant in my North Carolina State Representative’s office, then it is no wonder teachers are being devalued by our State Government.
I have sent the following letter to Ms. Garriss and also copied her employer, Rep. Tim Moore.
Dear Ms. Garriss,
I received a Facebook posting that highlighted an exchange you had with a veteran teacher from Cleveland County. I am troubled by what seems to be a cavalier attitude on your part and I want to say a few words. But more importantly, I want to present myself as a fellow state servant, one who wants to improve conditions in North Carolina.
Like Ms. Clore-Laurich and the thousands of veteran teachers in our state, I am directly affected by such actions as the removal of longevity pay, the disproportional rearrangement of the salary schedule and the elimination of increased pay for advanced degrees. This could be most devastating for the region (Cleveland County) that Rep. Moore represents.
Cleveland County sits on the border with South Carolina, which is successfully recruiting teachers from North Carolina with higher pay and better teaching conditions. Other out-of-state systems (Houston is notable) also are recruiting actively here. Bumper stickers are starting to appear around the state that parody North Carolina’s iconic automobile license plates. Instead of just saying “First in Flight,” they read “First in Teacher Flight.”
Possibly Ms. Clore-Laurich was relating to her elected official that she is concerned with keeping qualified, experienced teachers in her school district because they are crucial to sustaining quality education in Cleveland County. The “7%” raise for teachers being touted by the General Assembly is really a weak and misleading way of saying that public education is being cut into again. With the Teaching Fellow Program eliminated, teacher career status attacked and the measuring of teacher effectiveness with untested means, it is no wonder many veteran teachers are speaking out. They need to be heard. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School system I serve will have to deal with a $4 million shortfall that most likely will affect the hiring of teacher assistants. I have a son who has Down Syndrome and will enter first grade. Having teacher assistants is not a luxury in his classroom; it is vital.
A majority of the money in this so-called raise will be given to newer teachers with the short-term goal that they will start a career in North Carolina. However, the General Assembly refuses to see that the long-term outcome of this is that few teachers will end their careers in North Carolina.
Longevity is now eliminated and then given back to experienced teachers in the form of a raise. It is not an actual raise; it’s a reallocation of money that we teachers have already earned. Think of it this way: someone goes into your savings account and withdraws $10,000 and then hands it to you and says you got a bonus. And all state employees get longevity pay, possibly you as well. But now, teachers will not. It is being used to finance this “raise.”
The new salary schedule simply puts into place the actual numbers promised in the old salary schedule from 2007, but it does not consider inflation and cost-of-living increases. You should read James Hogan’s recent post on this matter. It can be found at http://www.forum.jamesdhogan.com/2014/07/the-pay-scale-no-politician-wants-you.html. Mr. Hogan is a very lucid, straightforward thinker and explains this very well.
The elimination of advanced degree pay is another item of concern. Advanced degrees have been the only means for teachers to get some sort of monetary promotion in the profession of education. Please remember that a profession, such as the fields of law, medicine and education, require licensure; however, our General Assembly apparently does not think educators deserve the same treatment as doctors and lawyers. Take Rep. Moore for example. He is an attorney, which means that he probably has a Juris Doctorate. But what if he was in business law and also possessed an MBA? Would he be able to command more recompense for his knowledge? Yes he would. Why should the field of education be any different?
There are other ramifications of this budget that invite many more questions and concerns. How does this affect teacher pension plans in the future? What about the message this sends to our post-secondary schools that train our teacher candidates? Why is more money going to fund “Opportunity Grants” when that money was already tagged for public education?
But the most obvious concern is keeping qualified, seasoned veterans in our classrooms to teach our kids and to mentor fabulous new teachers to become seasoned educators. And a border county like Cleveland County cannot afford to lose teachers, unless the goal is to always have your students taught by inexperienced teachers who plan to finish their careers elsewhere. Is that really the intent of Rep. Moore, a six-time incumbent seeking reelection this November?
All of this negative talk about public schools and teacher salaries is enough to make my “blood boil” as well. But I have no problem being called an “idiot teacher” if it means trying to speak up for public schools in North Carolina. I will gladly wear that label if it helps our students.
Respectfully,
Stuart Egan, Ed.S., NBCT
West Forsyth High School
Clemmons, NC
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I doubt Representative Moore would get a higher salary with an MBA than he gets now. Generally there are no automatic pay increase for additional degrees, only pay increases for additional capabilities. I could get a J.D. and an MBA and my salary as an economics teacher would not budge unless I had outside employment possibilities that the dean of my school was willing to match.
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TE I am going to mimic your normal style of argumentation on this one: so if I called a parent an “idiot parent” with the phone down, should I just be fired, or reprimanded?
Keep in mind that your answer will equally apply to Nancy Garriss.
Both a teacher and Nancy are public servants. Now if I did that to a parent there would be cries for my head from all “reformers” and most non reformers as well, but what will happen to Nancy do you think?
And don’t reply to my question with a question.
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Titleone,
I think a reprimand would be in order. Do we know if the person was or was not reprimanded in this case? Clearly Nancy was told (or volunteered) to apologies to the caller, perhaps that was part of the reprimand.
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Now, now — rank has its privilege, and as a Legislative Assistance, Nancy Garriss outranks any mere teacher.
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Titleonetexasteacher,
Don’t bother with TE. . . . . just smack hiim hard in the cyber head and hope none of his mother boards and circuits don’t come undone too much.
He’s due for an OSX upgrade, but I’m afraid his unique design make him incompatible with most any operating system.
He make Bill Gates look warm and cuddly . . . . .
You’ll get more socialization skills out of an 18 feet long alligator than with TE . . .
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Robert,
Amy thoughts about the issues in the discussion?
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TE, I’m really not sure.
Why don’t you ask Amy?
Find out what she’s thinking . . . .
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So are you saying additional education and the pursuit of degrees is futile? Are there companies that do value advanced degrees as a measure of employee hiring and retention? Is it possible “automatic raises” exist in the private sector in the form of across the board base salary increases?
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MathVale,
I am saying that additional skills and capabilities are worthwhile and might lead to higher earnings if these additional capabilities are useful for your job. Formal education is one way that you might get these additional capabilities, but it is not a guarantee that you will get them.
I think that most companies don’t have across the board base salaries for professional positions. At my institution, for example, full time faculty salaries are the product of individual negotiations between the dean (usually represented by a department chair) and the faculty member.
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Actually, you said no automatic pay increases for additional degrees.
Here’s the reality of the private, professional sector in my experience:
Professional positions have a variety of compensation systems, one of which is goals/objectives/review cycle. But often, “capabilities” are difficult to ascertain. The objectives are often obsolete well before the next annual review. Professionals may work autonomously. It is not unusual for professionals to basically draft their own review. Managers must inject a high amount of subjectivity. Hence, an advanced degree, particularly related to the field, may or may not be formally rewarded. But I have experienced both. Informally, an employee who earns an MBA may be viewed favorably and simply given a better review, leading to a higher salary increase. Pursuing a degree while working full time is no easy task and a good proxy of “capabilities”. Such employees often bring along intrinsic skills. Formally, some companies do pay bonuses for advanced degrees – particularly prior 2008. Post-2008, yes, employees are valued less and more disposable.
Prior-2008, and possibly returning, automatic pay increases were discussed in boardrooms. It was not unusual to see a compensation formula in private sector that had a base increase for all employees, with additional increases based on reviews – accurate or not. It was also a dirty secret that increases were based less on “merit” than on what was left over after the execs and shareholders were taken care of. Some of these formulas were ridiculously complex and many DID parameterize years of service. Th idea was base level increases helped foster cooperation and avoided too much nasty infighting – a death knell for team based organizations.
Other compensation like ISOs, regular options, bonus pools, etc generally were also awarded based on years of service, title (strongly correlated with years of service), and manager discretion.
And, of course, we always had the occasional nephew/niece or person with nice executice hair.
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MathVale,
The key word in your response is “informally”.
The difference between informally and published schedule of the increase, down to the last dollar, that might be expected from a masters from MIT or a masters from some online degree program (it matters not which institution grants the degree as long as they are both accredited) is great.
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Perhaps now enough teachers in NC will realize that their representatives do indeed think of them as idiots, they don’t give a whit if what they are doing is fair, your longevity is a bug not a feature to them, and it is time to join the national fight to stop the reformists in their tracks.
This kind of behavior is despicable but it is exactly how the neoliberal and neoconservative reformists look at the rest of us.
They don’t want seasoned, experienced veteran teachers in the classrooms. They want the classrooms to be money-making machines for their political donors.
I’m sorry this teacher had to learn this lesson the hard way but I doubt all the indignity in the world will make the slightest bit of difference when the legislation faces passage and gubernatorial signature.
Wake up teachers of the USA! We are an endangered species and nice won’t save us now.
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For once someone got a straight answer from a politician’s office: edubullies and educrats and eduappartachiks don’t care what “some idiot teacher” thinks about education and educational policy.
Your last sentence: TAGO!
😎
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They’re trying to remove the career teacher to prevent having to pay retirement benefits, plain and simple!
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Amber,
Ghat is one reason teachers might want to switch to a defined contribution plan. If there is no vesting, there is no incentive to dismiss a teacher right before vesting.
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Diane and y’all are complaining about NC state legislators, and I cannot agree more.
But until the NC general citizenry, who have been used to a certain level of taxation culturally and historically, really want their teachers to have a dignified and appropriate salary – and that’s based on the premise that privatization is not a good route to take – then almost nothing will change.
The NC pols are going to do what they want to do, but the NC people must unify and really tell the pols who they will be votiing for. The people and commerce are also going to have to rethink higher taxes on everyone of nearly ALL income levels.
OF course, the uber-wealthy and the big corporations down in NC don’t pay their fair share to begin with. . . . they have not for more than 30 years now, and each year, it gets worse. It’s unsustainable. That does not mean that taxation and spending taxes should have poor scrutiny. Quite the contrary is true in countries like Finland and France, where monitoring is an art and science, unilke the USA, where blame is always assigned to civil servants.
Why don’t we just privatize the military and our federal government. We can bid it all out to private companies and may the best, most efficient, profit-driven camp win . . . .
In the parlance of colorful metaphors, the NC pols need to have their __________ cut off, and I’m not talking salaries . . .
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Robert,
I’ve got the clippers if you’ll supply the brute force needed for compliance to the alteration.
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It’s not brute force as far as convincing the good people of NC, Ms. Gymnastic Cartwheeler.
It’s organizing, mobilizing, persuading, being an activist, and launching. It’s not a short term process either. It’s worth the effort. I preach to the choir.
As far as the pols go, you have all the brute force from me that you want. Help yourself. What’s mine is yours. I like to share. I’m a giver.
And don’t forget to conserve some of it for a few generations from now when Picketty’s predictions come true. It will be the second American Revolution, and it will be internal.
Let’s just all admit to class warfare and how we all contribute to it in some way of form, regardless of where we are on the socio-economic spectrum . . . .
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Gosh darn Robert, I was hoping for a smack down!
Unfortunately we can’t vote yearly so we’re stuck with some of these prevaricating purveyors of poop until the next crew shows up. I am not optimistic. It will surely be more of the same (poop.)
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Bottom line: they don’t want to pay us if we’ve been here a while. Experience isn’t relevant, it’s expensive. The legislators want to attract young, fresh, inexperienced, and inexpensive faces to the “profession.” They too will be jettisoned when they gain experience and qualify for “higher” pay.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Ms. Cartwheel you are correct. If you look at the pay scale, teacher who have 33+ years will take a pay cut with this so called pay raise. I am talking about from $440 to $3180 per year cuts. Where is the raise for these folks?
This a way to boot out the people who are the leader and do most of the mentoring.
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Trashawn,
There is no longer a need for mentors! The curriculum is changed every few years so it is new to everybody. Another money pit funded by teacher turnover.
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If some hack down at city hall called me, “some dumb teacher” over the phone, I would head down there and tear him or her a new one.
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Well thank you TE for being honest and not answering my question with a question: she should get a reprimand for calling someone an idiot. Thus, according to that logic, a teacher, equally a public servant, should just get a reprimand for the same action.
That said…I would be fired in my state, as a teacher, if I did that, not that I would.
Worse, the scary thing is, because Texas is right-to-work, I could even be fired if someone *falsely said* that I did that.
One reason that I am moving to Vermont, or Massachusetts, if Wendy Davis does not win: I can’t deal with 5 more years of GOP government in TX as a teacher; too unfair, to unprofessional.
I am starting to wonder what will happen if teachers all start leaving these states…will they change things, or will they just double down on the rhetoric?
I miss the east coast where people support different social classes.
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Slow down, cowboy.
The east coast is not without its problems, hypocrisies, and lack of progressiveness. It’s not the haven you may think it is, and it’s NO Austin.
But I suppose everything is relative.
New York is turning more and more into a southern type red state, save for the social liberalism that pervades New York City. Manhattanites, with all their sophistication, modern minimalist interior high rise condos, la-dee-da education, world travel, and global awareness are just as fiscally stingy as any southern or bible belt conservative. And our governor, Andrew Cuomo, is the most plastic, imitation democrat ever there was. He’s so filled up with putty and plastic, I’d say he has more silicone in him than the celebrity audience at the Oscars. There’s nothing real or substantial about him.
But Vermont and Massachusetts are probably the most progressive out of them all as far as statehoods go. Vermont is phasing in a single payer healthcare system over 3 years, from 2014-2017. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I am trying to keep my fingers cautiously crossed. It does rely, in part, on some privately contracted insurance companies. . . . . I am not sure about the mechanisms, and I am eager to learn about them.
Even my best friend ever TE agrees that a single payer system is the only way to go for the USA.
If you make it to New England, all I can say is welcome. I am also based in Massachusetts.
When I was young, I was determined to move to Dallas to start a career because I thought it would be just as urban as New York, but cleaner and tidier. It probably is, but WHAT was I thinking at 23?
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Robert: it’s cowgirl lol!
Dallas is moving-slowly-to be more like Austin. That said, all the reasons that I moved from Boston 20 years ago are mostly gone…at least there I would have rights, and a salary that will allow me to retire at some point and not take orders at McDonalds.
I understand the differences, believe me, but honestly the Texas GOP is just godawful.
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Title one,
I am always honest in my posts here.
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Beverly Hills School District wants to make sure that they can attract the best teachers, so what did they do? They decided to give their teachers an 11 percent raise over the next three years. I actually don’t think this is that huge, but it will make them the best paid teachers in the county.
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By the Vergara reasoning, that will pull in many experienced but incompetent teachers into that district, putting many students at risk.
What can thy be thinking?
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With all the posturing about the historic raise that really is hardly a raise at all, it was all a subterfuge. What really happened is the legislature stuck in a nice little clause in the budget where they may not have to continue funding education at all . . . http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/06/4055278/future-nc-budgets-wont-automatically.html
Now school districts will not have any clue to how much money they will receive from the state until the budget is finalized each year. I guess all staffing decisions can wait until August? One more way to harm public schools.
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Is Nancy Gariss related to Bridget Anne Kelly of NJ? This is like “Name That Tune”: 8 words “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” to jeopardize $140K job for BAK. N Gariss at 3 words “Some idiot teacher . . .” Suggestions for scoring welcome. Ms Kelly was in her Catholic girls’ high school Hall of Fame–does that rate extra points?
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Wonder if we have an “ageism lawsuit” here. NCAE? Veteran teachers are those near or over 50 are the ones most impacted..
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Now that the legislature has done away with logical/sequential step increases, how should a veteran teacher feel after 25 years of experience feel when a newly hired teacher walks in the door and realizes an 18% raise just for walking through the door? Why aren’t more veteran teachers yelling, “age discrimination?” I agree with you Kathy Clark.
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The problem is that teachers are not idiots and we encourage critical thinking. A teacher does not accept headlines or summaries at face value and will investigate the logistics behind a sensationalized “largest raise in history”.
Attempts to pull the wool over the eyes of teachers as a whole is quite a silly thing to attempt. It also begs the question as to how long has this wool pulling been going on for and who just accepts these obvious political attempts at subterfuge and deception.
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