Public Schools First in North Carolina finds it strange that the legislature can’t find the money to raise teachers’ salaries but easily finds money to fund vouchers for the rich.
Its latest notice says:
This week House majority leader Tim Moore announced that a legislative short session priority would be to increase funding for vouchers for the coming year by around $300 million to ensure that the state could fund vouchers for all families who applied. More than half of the applications came from families with incomes too high to have been eligible last year. Our March 9 newsletterdescribed the applicant pool breakdown and pointed out that increased demand this year was likely due to the state spending $1,000,000 to market the program and droves of existing high-income private school families seeking a taxpayer-funded discount coupon for their tuition bill.
From 2018-19 through 2022-23, the percentage of new applicants who actually accepted vouchers ranged from 44% to 51%. If historical patterns hold, the current voucher budget would more than pay for Tier 1 and Tier 2 families, cover the cost for returning voucher recipients (typically 80%) and be left with $50 million extra. In other words, more voucher funding is only needed to pay for vouchers for the upper-income families.
To put Moore’s priorities in sharp relief, his announcement came one week after the State Board of Education heard from DPI staff that last year’s teacher attrition rate was higher than it had been in decades. It hit 11.5%, which represents a whopping increase of 42% over last year’s attrition numbers.
The attrition rates were driven by especially high attrition for teachers with fewer than five or more than 26 years of experience. The highest rate, 26%, was the same for first-year teachers and veteran teachers with 35+ years of experience.
When asked about teacher salaries, Moore did say he thinks there may be room in the budget for teacher raises, and that the short session would address the looming crisis in early childhood care funding.
But North Carolina has some serious catching up to do when it comes to bringing teacher salaries to a level where they will attract and retain teachers. North Carolina lags behind all surrounding states in state-funded salaries. Our beginning teachers start out lower and our veteran teachers remain at the bottom. (See our fact sheetfor links to salary schedules.)
In 2023-24, North Carolina’s state minimum beginning teacher salary was $39,000. While it is scheduled to increase to $41,000 in 2024-25, it will still lag behind the beginning salary in neighboring states. And young people looking at teaching as a possible profession will be put off by the relatively poor earnings trajectory.
Strong support for bolstering salaries also came from North Carolina’s Fiscal Research Division’s recent analysis of state-funded salaries that found only deputy clerks of court had lower starting salaries than teachers. After the 7th year, deputy clerks made more. Only state highway patrol officers had lower maximum salaries than teachers.
Many local communities are working to make up for state neglect by offering teacher salary supplements, but this remedy simply exacerbates existing inequities. In 2023-24 teacher salary supplements ranged from $10,650 in Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District to $0 in Caswell County, Graham County, and Weldon City Schools.
Teacher salary increases barely scratch the surface of what the NCGA could do to improve conditions for public school educators, students, families, and communities. Funding for instructional assistants, school psychologists, counselors, nurses, and social workers is desperately needed. The looming child care crisiswill require fast action to prevent child care centers across the state from closing.
According to Moore, North Carolina has ample funds in reserve to pay the private school tuition vouchers for wealthy families. Perhaps those tax dollars should be redirected toward programs that serve the taxpaying public at large.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“…ranged from $10,650 in Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District to $0 in Caswell County, Graham County, and Weldon City Schools.”
So we see that North Carolina has sunk to Tennessee level. Realities like these described here are the rule when funding of schools is stripped away. Some years ago, a friend who taught in the NC system told me there was some local jealousy in the rather poor mountain population where we lived. They viewed his salary as too generous as compared to their own income level.
I suspect the Republicans exploit this attitude throughout rural counties to cement the vote of the trumpists.
Also, Caswell county was the place where Stephen, a slave and apparently a botanist on a tobacco plantation, developed the process of “light fired” tobacco, the process that led to cigarette manufacturing, all the health problems, and all the money.
The story of Stephen is a lesson that intellectual ability alone is not a power. It is assumed that Stephen’s heirs did not reap great monetary rewards from his diligence the way Duke and Reynolds did.