Go back a few years - say before the Great Recession. 2008. If you started as a teacher with a 4-year degree you would make 30,430 / year. If you planned on earning a master's degree you could with that same pay scale expect to almost double that amount in salary by the time you … Continue reading $2710 Less A Year In Actual Dollars: Comparing Veteran Teachers With Graduate Degrees From 2008 – 2023

That data graph above is a few years old, but the trend is still the same. North Carolina has not returned to pre-recession funding levels. Here's some more recent figures that do not put North Carolina in a really positive light. From U.S. News & World Report which used data for the school year ending … Continue reading Reason #5 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – The Need For More Per Pupil Expenditure (Fully Funding Schools)

Social media can be a wonderful tool for communicating and sharing information. It can also be the first place to spew vitriol and emotional outbursts without considering context and whole picture. The number of educators and advocates who recently have gone to Facebook, Twitter, and other popular outlets calling for immediate action and/or blaming existing … Continue reading Are You A Teacher Who Wants To Do Something About How The State Treats Public Education? Then Plan AND ORGANIZE!

From WUNC this past week: Supposedly it is about “school choice.” Even the bill that was introduced last spring to start this in the NCGA was partly titled “Choose Your School.” Yet that is a misnomer. Why? Because “School Choice” here really means “Schools’ Choice.” While those religious schools that are already tax exempt are … Continue reading “Universal School Choice” Does Not Mean Universal School Access

There are many glaring examples of extreme intentional contradictions within in this new budget for the state of North Carolina. Using a public narrative of "Kids First!" and fiscal responsibility, people like Phil Berger and Tim Moore have tried to divert attention away from the more subtle and nefarious that strengthen a very few rather … Continue reading “Esse Quam Videri” Is The State Motto? More Like “To Seem Rather Than To Be” – This Budget Proves That

What a veteran teacher received ten years ago compared to what a veteran teacher who would start a career in NC today is quite startling. Not only is there a significant loss in projected income but ramifications on being able to get health care after retirement and not having to fear reprisal in standing up … Continue reading Seen The New Budget Proposal? It Is Complete BS For Veteran Teachers. In Fact, They Lose Money.

Reason #1 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – “Average” Raises and Still Below Average Salaries Reason #2 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – Removal of Due-Process Rights and Career Status for Teachers Reason #3 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – They Are Gambling (Literally) With Our Kids’s Lives And now... The GOP-led … Continue reading Reason #4 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – Removal of Graduate Degree Pay Increases

There are still thousands of vacancies in our public schools to serve our students. School buildings around the state are not equipped with working updated HVAC systems. Poverty levels more than doubled over the previous year, especially hitting children hardest. Thousands upon thousands of people are in limbo over Medicaid expansion being tied to a … Continue reading Reason #3 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – They Are Gambling (Literally) With Our Kids’s Lives

If due-process rights are not restored for new teachers, then the idea of having a rally or a march to advocate for students and schools ten to fifteen years from now would likely never happen. They are that important! Their removal was a beginning step in a patient, scripted, and ALEC-allying plan that systematically tries … Continue reading Reason #2 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – Removal of Due-Process Rights and Career Status for Teachers

The following is currently posted on TEACH North Carolina's (TeachNC) website as a recruitment tool for the teaching profession here in NC. What that graphic above doesn't tell you is that not all local schools systems offer the same local supplements. Look at the interactive table of 2022-2023 local supplements offered by each LEA for which … Continue reading Reason #1 That Teachers Should Be Mad As Hell – “Average” Raises and Still Below Average Salaries