There is an unprecedented exodus of teachers from the schools of North Carolina. Pay has been stagnant for years, and the legislature keeps passing budget cuts. Nearly 1,000 teachers quit in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district. Local officials worry about replacing them.
The following letter expresses the anguish of teachers in North Carolina. Somehow I missed this letter when it first appeared in 2013. It went viral, and you will see why. The sad fact is that the situation has grown worse in North Carolina for teachers during the past two years. The legislature and Governor doesn’t think about holding on to experienced teachers. They don’t even care about investing in career teachers. They killed the successful North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, which prepared new teachers over a five-year period in college and graduate school. They put millions into hiring the temps of Teach for America, who will stay for two or three years, then leave. Salaries in North Carolina are near the lowest in the nation. It is hard to remember that North Carolina was once considered the most progressive state in the South, known for its outstanding universities and K-12 education. I wonder how “reformers” feel about belittling teachers and driving experienced teachers out of their state or their profession.
Letter to the NC General Assembly: I Can No Longer Afford to Teach
July 25, 2013 <http://makingourway.net/2013/07/25/letter-to-the-nc-general-assembly-i-can-no-longer-afford-to-teach/> by lrkf <http://makingourway.net/author/lrkf/>
Dear members of the North Carolina General Assembly,
The language in this letter is blunt because the facts are not pretty. Teaching is my calling, a true vocation, a labor of love, but I can no longer afford to teach.
I moved to North Carolina to teach and to settle in to a place I love. My children were born here; we have no plans to leave. I reassured my family in Michigan, shocked at my paltry pay and health benefits, that North Carolina had an established 200 year history of placing a high value on public education and that things would turn around soon.
When I moved here and began teaching in 2007, $30,000 was a major drop from the $40,000 starting salaries being offered by districts all around me in metro Detroit, but it was fine for a young single woman sharing a house with roommates and paying off student loans. However, over six years later, $31,000 is wholly insufficient to support my family. So insufficient, in fact, that my children qualify for and use Medicaid as their medical insurance, and since there is simply no way to deduct $600 per month from my meager take-home pay in order to include my husband on my health plan, he has gone uninsured. We work opposite shifts to eliminate childcare costs.
The public discourse on public assistance is that it is a stop-gap, a safety net to keep people from falling until they can get back on their feet. But as I see no end in sight to the assault on teacher pay, I will do what I have to do to support my family financially. We never wanted or expected to live in luxury. We did, however, hope to be able to take our little girls out for an ice cream or not wonder where we will find the gas money to visit their grandparents. And so, even though I am a great teacher from a family of educators and public servants and never imagined myself doing anything else, I am desperately seeking a way out of the classroom, and nothing about education in North Carolina breaks my heart more.
I will make no apologies for saying that I am a great teacher. I run an innovative classroom where the subject matter is relevant and the standards are high. My teaching practice has resulted in consistently high evaluations from administrators, positive feedback from parents, and documented growth in students.
I realize that no one in Raleigh will care or feel the impact when this one teacher out of 80,000 leaves the classroom. I understand. However, my 160 students will feel the impact. And 160 the next year. And the next. My Professional Learning Community, teachers around the county with whom I collaborate, will be impacted, and their students as well. Young teachers become great when they are mentored by experienced, effective educators, and all their students are impacted as well. When quality teachers leave the classroom, the loss of mentors is yet another effect. This is how the quiet and exponential decline in education happens.
Higher teacher pay may be unpopular, and I am aware it is difficult to see the connection between teacher pay and a quality education for students, so I will try to make it clear. Paying me a salary on which I can live means I can stay in the classroom, and keeping me in the classroom means thousands of students over the next decade would get a quality education from me. It’s that simple.
While I appreciate that Governor McCrory is advocating for a 1% raise for teachers in the coming school year, it is simply not enough. For me, that is $380, which after years of pay freezes, does not cover the negative change in my health coverage and copays. It does not cover the change in the cost of a gallon of milk, a gallon of heating oil, or a unit of electricity. It is not enough. A sobering fact: even a 20% raise would fall short of bringing me up to the 2007 pay scale for my current step, and that is in 2007 dollars.
My students deserve a great, experienced teacher. As a professional with two degrees and four certifications, I deserve to make an honest living serving my community and this state.
Respectfully,
Lindsay Kosmala Furst
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I was very afraid to write this letter. People have strong feelings about several of the topics herein, these things tend to take on a life of their own in the internet age, and “going public” means, of course, that when I go back to school next month, I may have to face students who know these quite personal details of my life. While I would not be leaving teaching as a statement or protest of any kind (what I really want to do is teach), I realized that the silent turnover that would happen serves no purpose at all, and that I need to at least let someone know. I’m not sure what kind of reckless abandon overcame me when I went ahead and sent the letters to both the General Assembly and the Raleigh News & Observer <http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/22/3049030/teachers-say-lawmakers-are-forsaking.html>, but I knew that once it was out, there was no getting it back.
I feel like I have come out of secrecy. My cards are on the table. This is the reality of being a young teacher in NC right now. We expect recent college grads to suck it up and deal with low pay for a year or two. We expect that at 30, however, young teachers may be starting families or wanting to buy houses. The fact is that those of us who began here in 2007 are only making a few hundred dollars per year more today than when we started, and our benefits have been slashed, negating even that small increase.
With a heavy heart, I have realized that if I want to remain in the classroom, I will have to leave the state. If I want to remain in this state, the place that I chose to be my home, I will have to leave the classroom. At the same time, this advocate of public education is left wondering what will be left for my children when they start school. I can’t express how deeply saddening it is to think that about my own field.
Since this was reported earlier this week, I have received many messages of encouragement. At least a dozen are from other mothers in my position, teaching full time with children on Medicaid and/or WIC, the nutrition assistance program for women, infants, and young children. They thanked me for telling their story as well. So many are afraid to stand up and speak. The public negativity directed at teachers right now is overwhelming, and it is no surprise that many do not want to enter the fray. I cannot blame them. But since I already have, I will do my best to represent them as well.
Thank you for your support.
———
Update 1: WOW! I am overwhelmed by the response I have received. Thank you, thank you. Your support is incredible. Thank you for sharing your own stories here, as well. I am reading every single one of them.
Let me say this: While I appreciate difference of opinion, I will not be approving abusive comments. If you see one that has slipped by, please let me know. Thank you.
———-
Update 2: You guys. Honestly, you bring tears to my eyes. I’m heartbroken to see so many of you feeling the same way. If you want to leave a comment, please scroll to the very bottom where it says “Leave a Reply.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The sad part is this is exactly what the progressive reformers planned to happen. We will shortly be told there is a teacher shortage and the only way to fill the gap is to hire obedient drones from Teach For America and the The New Teacher Project. The reformers knew their reforms would force teachers out of teaching. We are also seeing a steep decline in graduates going on to college to be teachers. All a part of the plan to destroy traditional teachers and replace them with trained room monitors from TFA and other alternative teacher organizations that are getting ready to cash in.
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Yeah, North Carolina is totally in thrall to the progressives. And nationwide, it’s progressives like Jeb Bush and Chris Christie who are destroying education. Damn evil progressives.
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BTW, the real progressives, like Zephyr Teachout in New York, Chuy Garcia in Chicago and, as far as I can tell so far, Bernie Sanders on the national level, are the best hope we have for undoing the evils of education “reform”. No Republican is going to fix anything – they’re only concerned about federal overreach.
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Progressive reformers?! That’s a contradiction in terms. If someone is a true progressive, he/she would not be for school reform and school privatization. Though Obama and Democratic billionaires/corporatists are on board for school reform, they do not qualify as true progressives (at least when it comes to education).
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I would respectfully suggest you move to Loudoun county, Virginia. We are hiring 600+ teachers a year and starting salaries are between $57-64k. Of course, I would need to teach you how to accurately value your salary by taking into account the 18.2% pension contribution you receive.
If you have a top 25% EVAAS score, you will be adored. We bring our teachers lunch on Wednesdays. They receive $250+ gift cards for Christmas and teacher appreciation week. And you get to teach talented kids in one of the most affluent counties in the US.
You will have many advocates in the teachers union who claim they have “not gotten a raise since 2009”. But as you can see from this chart, they are lying their tails off as teachers have been regularly receiving raises. Come one, come all.
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Btw, be sure to tell them Virginia SGP sent you. Bonus points if you are a STEM major and teacher. Loudoun has never held a STEM recruiting event. Our administration needs a little “work”.
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The STEM shortage myth:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/
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Tell me about it. If you are over 40 in STEM, you are considered untouchable no matter how good you are. Just being in those H1bs.
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Watch out especially if you have students bound for electrical engineering.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2487847/it-careers/what-stem-shortage–electrical-engineering-lost-35-000-jobs-last-year.html
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Michigan is headed in the same direction. I have have “lost” over $5,000 in salary in the past 5 years due to stagnant wages, increased co-pays on insurance, lane and step freezes. Local school board shrugs and says what can they do. Politicians in Lansing think we are overpaid as it is. Pretty bad when a 20+ year educator with a masters degree has to take a part-time janitorial job in the summer to make ends meet…and the ends still don’t meet!
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As a 25 year Michigan teacher I can confirm this. I was recently shredding some old financial documents when I made a shocking discovery. Although my salary is the same as it was 5 years ago (again, pay freezes, etc.) I am taking home over $200 less a paycheck due to increased insurance and pension contributions. I knew I was bringing home less money, but I hadn’t realized it was that bad. No wonder we can’t seem to save any money!
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I’ll just put it out there, a great many of the North Carolina legislators are jack asses. Perhaps that should be our state mammal.
Not only have they killed our salaries but they are now proposing a budget that will cut 8,500 teacher assistant jobs! That is after our TAs have had their hours and pay cut to 80% for the past few years. It is unconscionable. We were once a state with a great reputation in all things educational from public schools to universities. Now our universities are cutting teaching programs and graduate programs in education because there is no longer any incentive to get a masters degree. Shame, shame, shame on our governor and our legislators.
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CNN has a great editorial by John Blake about Southernomics. Basically, privatize everything to ensure people are dependent on the business class (plantation owners) and break the spirit of working America. Of course, as the middle class becomes fearful and obedient, democracy transforms into a feudal system. His point that the 1%ers care little about the color of their serfs is a good one. The old south was full of white subsistence farmers who clung to beliefs about supremacy and hope their payoff will someday come. Yet, they died in poverty.
Blake does not let the northern neoliberals and industrialists off the hook. They use this system of exploitation for their own personal gain. Obama, Emanuel, and likely Clinton fall into this category. Walker is simply a transplant and puppet as is Kasich, Jeb!, and about every other Republican on the ticket.
I listened silently the other day to an elderly person rant about tyranny and socialism. Respect for elders is important to me, and an argument would serve no purpose as the person was already indoctrinated by talk radio. The irony of this person attending state supported college, enjoying government health care, and retiring comfortable on social security was breathtaking. When they grew up, the unions remained a voice for labor establishing safe working conditions and decent pay. The U.S. was unchallenged in the world and good jobs were plentiful. How can these voters not see that tyranny does not come from a black man in the White House or offering a good education to all, but from their own failure to see the harmful effects of Southernomics? Do they really not see what is going on to cause the destruction of their grandchildren’s future? Or do they just not care, anymore? Baffling.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/10/us/conderate-flag-southern-economics/
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The zombie elderly are a staple of the Republican party. They are brainwashed and unable to think critically. They repeatedly vote against their own self interests. I see them in line at the polls here in north Florida. I wish progressives had some consistent zealots like them.
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Yes. I am no youngster, but at least I am an aging progressive. Today’s elderly have benefitted from years of a socialist, progressive agenda I will never have access to and certainly not my children. Programs like Medicare and Social Security have done more to keep our elderly out of poverty than any other effort. Yet they vote in people like Kasich and Walker, intent on destroying what they enjoyed. The Greatest Generation has yielded to the Greediest Generation.
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Fascinating article about Southernomics here:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/10/us/conderate-flag-southern-economics/
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There was a bumper sticker that was popular a few years ago, at least I used to see it a lot around town. It said, “I am spending my children’s inheritance.” This to me is the view of today. I graduated high school in 1968. I went on to college. I went to a California college that cost a hundred or so dollars a semester, if I had gone to a junior college it would have been free. I graduated from Syracuse University with $2,500 in student debt because my parents contributed to the cost of my education and paid most of the bills. My parent’s generation believed in making a better world for their children and they worked making that come to pass. I do not see the same commitment to children that I was when I saw as a child. I blame Ronald Reagan for much of this, though he is really just a scapegoat as this view towards government has been embraced by most politicians from most parties. It is the belief that you can have everything you want and don’t have to pay for it. That is how Reagan and everyone who has come after him has run things. There has to be tax cuts and the government services everyone loves (they are different for everyone, but the definition of a necessary program is one I use and an unnecessary, wasteful program is one others use but I do not). No one can get elected running on cutting programs or raising taxes so taxes are cut and programs left in place and infrastructure, public institutions (like schools and parks and libraries, and councils on aging), and public transportation, etc. are allowed to deteriorate. Somehow we have come to believe that cutting waste, fraud, and abuse will pay for everything from now to the end of time. I watched as Reagan dismantled the public college and university system in California (not him alone he had help from others that carried on after him) and the public k-12 school system. As a nation we have to be honest about what it costs to maintain the quality of life we enjoy and the world leadership that keeps us safe. We won World War II in part because our scientists were smarter than their scientists and to this day we file more patents, develop more technology, make the most medical advances, have the best standard of living in the world, but that comes at a cost and if we continue to refuse to pay the cost as a nation we are likely to decline and that is not good for us, it is not good for the world. China is showing the world that people will sacrifice liberty for prosperity (though it remains to be seen if they will be successful). I believe in pubic education and I think it is part of what makes the country strong and keeps it successful. I remember the 1950’s, when Eisenhower was president, when the Russians launched Sputnik and the anxiety that caused. I remember the push to improve education so that we could keep up with the space race. I also remember that the public highway system, also when Eisenhower was president, was built and expanded in the 1950’s. Eisenhower was not socialist, though some today might call him one. Growing up in Los Angeles I saw at most street corners stamped into the concrete, a sign saying that the sidewalk was built by the WPA. We believed in our country and we believed in our children and we invested in both.
Cordially,
J. D. Wilson, Jr.
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One minor note J.D. Eisenhower was shocked at the outcry regarding education because it was known that we had the capability to launch a satellite but in the interests of international relations did not do so. Our education system was not at fault, we easily could have been in space years before Russia.
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Amen. Don’t forget the GI Bill and subsidized mortgages. Not to beat up on us aging Americans too much, but older Americans are the most active voters and control the institutions in America. Plus they keep voting in these anti-education Republicans. As I watch my own kids take on massive college loans they will likely never be able to pay back, I grow tired of the “I’ve got mine” and “walked uphill to school both ways” crowd. l was able to work my way through state school. Not possible today.
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That’s the thing. Not only are (many, but not all) elderly voting against their own best interests, but the young (many, but not all) are NOT voting, which is also against THEIR best interests.
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Where is Lindsay Kosmala Furst now? Is she teaching? Is she still in NC?
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By design, and here you have it: “They put millions into hiring the temps of Teach for America, who will stay for two or three years, then leave.” The politicians are creating a void for TFA to continue to fill. Enough said from me.
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My very sad conclusion to ALL that is happening now is that the goal is to make everyone a peon, an indentured servant so the plutocrats at the top can siphon off the nation’s largess. It is NOT only in teaching but in so very many situations in the work place.
Thus my wish for Bernie Sanders who has said the same things, fought for the same things for decades.
Again I would draw attention to the last issue of “The American Prospect” where this is talked about in depth.
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This is exactly what RheeFormers want. They are deliberately starving public education to force it out of existence so the corporations can replace them and profit off the taxes that once funded the public schools.
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Many in my state turned away from the Democratic Party when they became the pro-abortion party. The Republican Party became the party of family values. The older people have also looked at the Democratic Party as communistic. As children we in this older generation were taught that communism was evil and dangerous. Our parents watched as Stalin murdered any one who disagreed with his policies. China followed suit with it’s cultural war. As teens and young adults, we watched as Cambodia murdered its citizens during the communist over throw of their government. Many of us do not trust the Democratic Party to protect our rights as outlined in the Bill of Rights. And many of us have seen our rights trampled on under Obama. Many older Americans are also worried about the UN as its charter has no Bill of Rights and has many of the components of the USSR’s constitution. I am concerned because I see my party, the Republican Party, as turning away from traditional values in favor of “me first” thinking. I am seeing that the party of free enterprise has the potential to become tyrannical just as the communist party has shown to be. Neither is concerned about justice and equal protection for all. I do not know how I will vote in the next election. I am disillusioned with both parties and do not believe that either group really cares about the citizens of our country. It seems that both parties are bought and paid for by lobbiests or special interest groups.
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Pro-abortion party? That’s silly; Democrats are not pro-abortion, they are pro not making abortion criminal, they are pro having the right to have an abortion when deemed necessary. The Democrats are pro the right for a woman to deal with her private birth matters as she and her doctor see fit. The GOP wants to go back to the bad old days of back alley abortions. It was a Democrat who successfully navigated the nation through WWII. Sorry to see that you have bought into all the GOP bogus propaganda against Democrats. Obama has trampled your rights? Sounds like Fox News talking points. Utter nonsense.
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Pro abortion is a part of the Democratic Party platform. I did not state my own personal feelings about abortion only what I perceive and have seen by the older adults in my state. I came from a family that were very active in politics. My father ran for the governor of my state in 1992. They were members of the Democratic Party until the party placed pro abortion on the party platform. They then changed parties. They actively supported George McGovern in his presidential bid. They were not the only ones who switched parties over this issue. Many of their friends did as well. This includes my husband’s parents. It was a tipping point in the politics of my state. The Equal rights amendment was another sticking point in my state during this time period. I wrote about this because many have stated that voters often do not choose candidates that are best for their own personal needs. We tend to forget that not all people choose a candidate based on their economical needs. Voters have many varied interests and needs. Most people know that some republican candidates are pro abortion just as some democrats are anti abortion. This is not the point. Our perceptions of the parties and candidates is the point. At this point in time neither party meets my needs or represents my best interests. I do not know who to trust with my vote. I am not alone in this matter.
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The problem in Utah, firstgrademonkey, is that the Republicans in our state are NOT the party of virtue here. Even though the Democrats are a pro-life, and a lot of Democrats in Utah switched sides at that time (my family among them), the Republicans in the state are doing everything to solidify their power, but gerrymandering districts and destroying any opposition here. Then they can go so far to the right as to damage our state. It’s getting worse and worse. I don’t think most of our older folks realize what damage the extreme right of Utah is doing. Most of them value public education and other community resources, and they are diverted by the continuous Republican talk on social issues. The diversions are exactly what the Republicans want, because it takes people’s attention away from the robbery that these people are doing to our society.
We MUST do everything we can to educate people about what is happening. The state is close to becoming everything that we don’t want. I kind of wish that the dominant faith in the state would speak out against this unholy alliance of money, power, and greed.
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Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. It simply means that a woman has the right to decide what to do with her own body. Choice includes life. A woman may decide to have the child or terminate. The choice is hers to make.
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Retired teacher, thank you, you stated it much better than I did, pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion.
To firstgrademonkey: I would say that no party is perfect but that the GOP has gone totally right wing nuts. The GOP is on track to gut and destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA. The GOP would select more far right wing justices to the supreme court. The GOP would do more to kill off unions, is against doing anything positive about climate change and is rabidly against the social programs that help the poor and ordinary Americans. The GOP wants to give more tax breaks to the rich at the expense of everyone else. Sadly, when it comes to education, both parties (with a few exceptions on the D side) are on the same privatization page. The Democrats are much more progressive when it comes to social issues such as gay marriage and LGBT rights.
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Right. The Republicans are so into family values that they routinely pass legislation that destroys families. Gotta destroy them to save them I guess.
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Only if they can place a dollar value on families.
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As a former moderate Republican conservative, welcome to enlightenment. The Republican party is no longer recognizable. It has been hijacked by extremists and all rational thought and moderation abandoned. The Democrats used to be the party for the middle class and true working Americans. They are off wandering in the wilderness.
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Sentiments such as those expressed here are proof that Republicans and some Democrats want only to destroy the organized teaching profession. The organized profession, whether it’s called an association or a union, is a powerful antidote to legislators and bureaucrats (to say nothing of the billionaires) whose only concern is consolidating their own power. They believe that teachers should not be allowed to join together to advance any agenda, let alone a pro-education one.
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Lindsay,
I admire your courage for standing up and telling your truth in this letter. I believe every word of it and know without a doubt you are an amazing teacher that NC should be fighting to keep in the classroom. I wish you and your young family all the best for the future. I selfishly hope you stay in the classroom, but understand the need to take care of your family and yourself.
Ellen
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Thank you for “outing” what most If us teachers are going through nationwide. I left NYC for AZ when then-mayor Bloomberg dismantled the program I was teaching in here, only to be back home 2 years later broke & living with my mom @ age 47. I’m leaving education as well, and i was also a good teacher from a great college and top of my class; the tragedy is that nobody cares. Will start nursing school in September.
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Best of luck in your new venture.
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