There are many on West Jones Street in Raleigh who are deathly afraid of a certain “genus” of people, and more scared are they of a certain species in that genus that they have exerted great effort to make it endangered in hopes of making it extinct.

The biological classification of this genus / species is called “North Cackalacky Magister expertus”, otherwise known as the North Carolina veteran teacher.

Interestingly enough, you can still find these “North Cackalacky Magister experti” in public schools. Many have graduate degrees in education and other vital fields, have due-process rights, and have survived many government-driven initiatives to change curriculum, testing, and evaluation protocols. These veteran teachers have also withstood the failed initiatives of merit pay, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top. Currently many are weathering, but still educating effectively, in the wake of school voucher programs, ridiculous school measurement instruments, and lowered funding. They have taught through the pandemic and trudged through years of stalled budgets.

And having these “North Cackalacky Magister experti” in our schools is vital to our students and our communities. Furthermore, they pave the way for newer teachers, also referred to as “North Cackalacky Magister novi” to mature into “North Cackalacky Magister experti”. If there are no more “experti”, then the “novi” will not transition into “experti” themselves.

However, many profit-minded political poachers are lurking in legislative chambers hoping to alter the environment for these veteran teachers in hopes to prevent more from coming into fruition. Why? Because veteran teachers with due-process rights have the ability to provide a check and balance for the public school system like none other against the forces of personalities and profit that are mixed in NC’s politics.

And while there are still many “North Cackalacky Magister experti” in schools now, they are lower in number than five years ago, and those numbers will continue to dwindle if current “environmental stressors” stay in place.

It will get to a point where the “North Cackalacky Magister experti” will be no longer. They will either go to other states or mutate into another profession.

They will be extinct. And our schools, students, and communities will suffer severely from that.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has in its Endangered Species Act and way of “delisting” an endangered species.

Specifically it states, “To delist species, we are required to determine that threats have been eliminated or controlled, based on several factors.“

So what can North Carolina do to “delist” the veteran teacher from the endangered list?

Step 1.

Well, the first step has been taken: getting Phil Berger out of office. He has been the biggest carbon-based obstacle in this state for public schools. The fact that he will be out of office come 2027 means that control in the General Assembly will have to be reshuffled and makes it more vulnerable, espcially when there are races this November that will no longer be able to be as well-financed for GOP cohorts. Remember this?

Step 2.

The second step is to get more people to vote for pro-public education candidates up and down the ballot.

On the state level that means electing Roy Cooper over Michael Whatley to replace Thom Tillis.

It also means preserving Anita Earls’s position on the NC State Supreme Court.

And it also means paying attention to the Court of Appeals candidates who in theory help decide what will be heard case-wise in higher courts that could have sweeping effects on the state.

Remember LEANDRO? Yes, the was all about the court system.

Step 3.

Call out your local representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly. When a state has a high ranking for businesses (that rests on such low corporate taxes) while sitting at the bottom of ranking for school funding, then something is out-of-whack.

Call them out loudly. And if they don’t answer you with a satisfactory answer then make sure you do remembert that in the ballot box.

Step 4.

Find out how schools are truly funded.

Each state is different. And the funding model changes frequently. Espcially here in North Carolina.

This is from the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s site currently:

One way or the other, we will pay. And paying for something later usually comes with interest and regret.

Step 5.

Start thinking about the State Supreme Court elections of 2028.

As soon as Phil Berger, Jr. (yes, the son of Phil Berger) was elected to his seat in 2022, the NC State Supreme Court became a GOP dominated body that seems to now always side with all of Phil Berger, Sr.’s wishes. That was most evident with the recent dismissal of the LEANDRO decision.

Step 6.

Understand what really happens when we lose veteran teachers and act to stop that loss.

It costs a lot of money to replace an effective veteran teacher not to mention the relationships that are fractured in schools as well as communities and the hemorrhaging of the leadership pipeline in our schools.

From the Learning Policy Institute:

Step 7.

Talk to a veteran teacher. Listen to what he/she says about what has happened to public schools in North Carolina these last fiften-plus years.

Then take their word for it instead of some narrative from a person who has never been in public schools or is relying on their ancient viewpoint fo when they were in school – last century.