The very lawmakers who claimed that public education in North Carolina needed to be reformed because it was failing our students have had over a decade to make things better.

In this last decade, North Carolina’s public school system has actually been surgically weakened by our state government instead of strengthened. Here are a few of the deliberate actions taken.

1. Teacher Pay Kept Well Below National Average

2. Removal of Due-Process Rights For New Teachers

3. Graduate Degree Pay Bumps Removed For New Teachers

4. Retiree Health Benefits Removed For New Teachers

5. Push for Merit Pay and Bonus Pay 

6. Removal of Longevity Pay 

7. Health Insurance and Benefits Altered

8. Attacks on Teacher Advocacy Groups (NCAE) 

9. Revolving Door of Standardized Tests 

10. Reorganization and a Weakening of the Department of Public Instruction 

11. Less Money Spent per Pupil When Adjusted For Inflation

12. Remove Caps on Class Sizes 

13. Amorphous Measures Like “Graduation Rates”

14. School Grading System 

15. Cutting Teacher Assistants 

16. Read to Achieve 

17. Educational Savings Accounts 

18. Opportunity Grants 

19. Unregulated Charter Schools 

20. Virtual Charter Schools 

21. Innovative School District

22. Reduction of Teacher Candidates in Colleges 

23. Elimination & Reinventing of Teaching Fellows Program 

24. Frozen Salaries For Years 15-24

25. Ignorance of LEANDRO Decision

26. Bad Safety Protocols During Pandemic

27. Budget Taking Three Years To Pass

If anyone wants to explain to this teacher how the reforms from the NC General Assembly and NCDPI have helped public education in the last decade, I am all ears.