Former Governor Jim Hunt, a Democrat, is one of the most respected figures in North Carolina on the subject of education. As teacher Justin Parmenter explains in this post, Governor Hunt was a true education reformer who cared about students, teachers, and public schools.
Parmenter writes:
Among others, those initiatives include beginning the Smart Start Pre-K program, putting a full-time teaching assistant in every grade 1-3 classroom, establishing the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and creating the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (as a personal aside I’d like to add that I am grateful and proud to have been a National Board Certified Teacher since 2006).
Under Hunt’s leadership, teacher pay in North Carolina rose to 19th nationwide, coming within about $2000 of the national average during the 2001-02 school year. The state currently ranks 39th.
Since 2010, North Carolina has been controlled by Tea Party zealots in the legislature, who devoutly believe in charters and vouchers.
Many educators were surprised when Governor Hunt agreed to join a panel that was planning to change the compensation of teachers and tie it to test scores. Perhaps Governor Hunt thought he could steer the group towards sensible solutions, like raising teacher pay to the national average.
But he announced he was quitting the coalition. He must have realized that the state commissioner and her minions were wedded to merit pay.
Parmenter writes:
Governor Jim Hunt has withdrawn as honorary co-chair of the UpliftEd Coalition, a group which will promote a controversial plan to do away with experience-based teacher compensation and replace it with a system of merit pay.
The Pathways to Excellence proposal, currently being worked on by the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC), has proven deeply unpopular with North Carolina educators since it became public earlier this year.
Governor Hunt called on the coalition to draw upon the knowledge of teachers and listen to them.
That’s a novel idea! They are probably listening to the business community, which always complains that teachers are overpaid.
I would recommend that they read my book Reign of Error, in which I thoroughly debunk merit pay. It has been tried again and again for a century, and it has never worked. It’s one of those zombie ideas that never works and never dies.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope you’re right about his reasons for leaving, Diane, and it would be great if he expressed this. Not only does “merit pay” not work, but it’s in fact counterproductive. The hyper-focus on test scores is one of the worst things to hit education in recent decades. Hopefully the wisdom from your book and blog will spread to the mainstream.
counterproductive is the EXACTLY right word for it
“The hyper-focus on test scores is one of the worst things to hit education in recent decades.”
No, it’s not “one of the worst things”. . .the standards and testing malpractice regime is THE worst thing.
But what about NOT leaving in protest? What if someone like Mr. Hunt fully understood the deeply evil impact of these MAGA/ Tea Party/GOPee/MFL types on the Coalition Panel.
And chose to remain. Maybe as a spy from the House Of Love.
With no bent toward getting them to do right by Public School Systems in NC. Clear-eyed that there was no use hoping for the best.
But as a perpetual, well-respected thorn in their side who refuses to backdown or back away.
A double agent of sorts, positioned to report out on the well-funded, traitorous behavior they are engaging in.
Name Names and Follow The Money.
Call those Tea Party zombies what they really are, fascists.
Governor Hunt did so much for education in NC – and the country – it was inspiring to work for him to get National Board certification to be seen (and legislated) as a valuable investment in proven teaching quality (way beyond test scores).
NB certification = $$$ making racket.
I worked in NC during Governor Hunt’s two stints as governor. Although some of his initiatives were misguided, he was always willing to try things to improve teacher circumstances. We had a version of merit pay we called Career Status in the late 80s and 90s that was based on observations. When I earned the highest level I got a nice pay boost for about three years. However, when the general assembly ended the program I was “held harmless” for the next four years so that peers who had not reached my status would catch up. The reality was that my pay decreased as health care costs for raising a young family went up dramatically. Once all of that balanced out, my pay began to increase substantially. At that point raising teachers salaries was very popular. My oldest daughter was lured to work at an independent school last year because her salary in the public schools for five years didn’t increase. Governor Hunt had a well earned reputation as a listener. He also believed in participating in initiatives that probably explains his participation in the merit pay study. I wouldn’t be surprised if he determined the effort was wrong and he simply bowed out gracefully. He wasn’t known for bad mouthing others. North Carolina is now a mess because leaders like Jim Hunt are few and far between. Governor Roy Cooper is doing his best with a profoundly gerrymandered backward thinking general assembly that has done irreparable harm to public schools in North Carolina.
By the sound of it, we should cozy up to a word like “merit”, but then we discover its treacherously ingenious application. Results, eh? So any doctor who treats pancreatic cancer patients will have a far higher morbidity rate than a dermatologist specializing in popping pimples and that data would be damning out of context. I’m not comparing at-risk kids with disease, just illustrating what happens when there is contempt for complexity and context.
I lived in Hunt’s North Carolina. The education system was arguably the best anywhere. Fumes of that North Carolina are still around.
My question about National Boards several days ago goes hand in hand with this for anyone paying attention. Sometimes people are so woke they’re asleep.