It launched in August of 2019. A superfluous program that even the idea of would have never been needed if North Carolina had not done so much damage to the teaching profession in the last ten years.

It’s called Teach North Carolina or TeachNC.

Remember back in May of 2019 when then State Superintendent Mark Johnson printed up a lot of glossy fliers for students to “invite” them to become teachers in North Carolina? It really showed how our state was having a hard time recruiting teachers.

There are many reasons why we are losing teachers. Johnson himself should have known as he was part of that problem and was propped up by those who created that problem.

Originally, TeachNC was introduced at that February 2019 private dinner that not many teachers got to attend. Mark Johnson presented an initiative that took money from the Gates Foundation, Belk Foundation, and Coastal Credit Union and pays BEST NC and Teach.org to develop a website for what Kelly Hinchcliffe on WRAL.com described as a:

 “public-private teacher appreciation campaign to better align the image of the teaching profession with the fruitful, fulfilling career it is and develop a statewide teacher-recruitment system to attract the next generation of North Carolina teachers.”

The price tag for it? $750K. For what? To show “appreciation” for the teaching profession and present it as a viable option for a career in North Carolina.

And now on September 27th, 2022 as that same group (BEST NC) is helping to create a disastrous teacher licensure / pay proposal, it might be a good time to see how well TeachNC is helping to fill those vacancies.

That’s 15686 vacancies for just the category labeled “Classroom Teacher.”

And for all jobs?

That’s 24146 vacancies.

Damn!