If you have been a teacher in North Carolina for at least 20 years, you will remember that public school teachers do not get longevity pay any longer.

Similar to an annual bonus, longevity pay is something that all state employees in North Carolina — except, now, for teachers — gain as a reward for continued service. The budget supposedly “rolled” that money into teachers’ salaries and labeled it as a raise.

One of the reasons that gerrymandered stalwarts in the North Carolina General Assembly gave as to why teachers no longer receive that pay is that teachers are technically not “state employees.”

And DPI makes sure to “ALMOST” make that distinction.

What that means is that teachers are hired and managed by local LEA’s and paid a minimum allotted salary by the state with funds provided by the NCGA to the LEAs which are then given to the teachers in the form of a salary. The local LEA can then add a local supplement as added income for teachers based on local funding measures.

Recently, one large LEA (Wake County) reinstituted Masters degree pay for their teachers that ironically was phased out the same time that longevity pay was eliminated for NC teachers. Other LEAs have been lobbied to do the same for their teachers and one of the arguments for not doing so by county/city commissioners is that they believe teachers are not local employees because they are basically paid by the state. (Therefore, the state should make that happen – like the other nine states in the immediate Southeast do).

Teachers are on the “state” plan for health insurance. Teachers pay into the “state” pension fund for retirement. But when it comes to longevity pay, the word “state” seems to be disassociated with the profession of North Carolina public school teacher. Why? Well, I think we know why: to keep it so undefined that whoever needs to interpret it in a way that fits a political narrative can do so and not have to explain themselves.

That’s intentional ambiguity.

Pure and simple.