Below is a data graph that shows the percentage change in the number of people who complete a teacher prep program when comparing the years of 2008-2011 to the years of 2014 – 2017.

It was posted by Ed Fuller, Assistant Professor at Penn State University and tweeted out by Kris Nordstrom.

That’s North Carolina 9th from the left with a nearly 40% decline of people completing teacher ed programs.

Only Rhode Island, Michigan, New York, Maine,  Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Illinois, and Puerto Rico have a higher “negative.”

Interestingly enough 2011 is the bookend of the “before” measurement that is used to find the data.

In 2011, the current NCGA lead legislators came to power and within the next six years did these actions:

1. Removal of due-process rights for new teachers
2. Graduate Degree Pay Bumps Removed 
3. Push for Merit Pay 
4. “Average” Raises
5. Health Insurance and Benefits Changes
6. Attacks on Teacher Advocacy Groups (NCAE) 
7. Revolving Door of Standardized Tests 
8. Less Money Spent per Pupil When Adjusted For Inflation
9. Removal of Caps on Class Sizes 
10. Sacrificing of Specialties in Elementary Schools
11. Jeb Bush School Grading System 
12. Cutting Teacher Assistants
13. Opportunity Grants 
14. Unregulated Charter School Growth 
15. For-Profit Virtual Charter Schools 
16. Innovative School District 
17. Elimination of Teaching Fellows Program And Created a Much Smaller Version 
18. Gave a Neophyte of a State Superintendent More Power Over DPI

Makes one wonder why there are so many fewer teachers coming into our schools in a state that has ballooned in population.

Actually, it is no wonder.