Supt. Truitt, I read the open letter to teachers you recently posted on EdNC.org entitled "A note of praise for our teachers" and I tried to appreciate your words during this Teacher Appreciation Week. You are right; this school year has been like no other. This pandemic has been unprecedented. Teachers and other educators have … Continue reading Dear Supt. Truitt – About That Rather Empty “Note Of Praise For Our Teachers”

Every year, the National Education Association releases a report called the Annual Teacher Salary Benchmark Report sometime in the spring. This year it was dropped on April 26th. North Carolina is mentioned specifically in the first part of the report. According to the report, all of NC's 115 LEAs were able to have all 93,462 … Continue reading Why NC’s “Average” Teacher Salary Is Horribly Overstated

We have no new budget. Still. And we are still in an unprecedented pandemic which has altered the landscape of education for a time. But there is a lot of hope with vaccines and science. If people get vaccinated and stay vigilant. For fourteen months, educators have adapted, invented, created, and constructed ways and means … Continue reading It’s Teacher Appreciation Week – How About Restoring Respect For The Teaching Profession

Our public schools are better than many lawmakers portray them to be – lawmakers who have never spent time as educators. A lot better. And the problem is not the schools. The problem is the lawmaking body that controls the narrative of how schools are performing. With the constant dialogue that “we must improve schools” … Continue reading Our Public Schools Are Better Than The North Carolina General Assembly Wants You to Believe

Yes, public education is political. But it does not have to be partisan. Yet, in the last few years, more and more local school board elections are becoming partisan races steering school systems by a GPS system based on political dogma and controlled in Raleigh rather than what is best for the local school system. … Continue reading Local School Boards Should Not Be Partisan

Remember this recent bill? Senate Bill 700 was filed less than four weeks ago. Here are a couple of parts to that bill: Post everything that is used and the sourcing of all of these materials? So that people can make judgement without the context and measure those materials against their own personal bias and … Continue reading The Hypocrisy of “Transparency” In NC Schools & Society

A little over five years ago, an extended editorial appeared in newspapers across North Carolina concerning public education. I happened to read it in the Winston-Salem Journal. It was written by Walter McDowell, a board member of BEST NC. McDowell, a former executive with Wachovia, talked of the dire need to transform education in North Carolina. … Continue reading The ACT Should Never Have This Much Power Over NC High Schools

These two data exhibits in the recently released Leandro Report paint a vivid picture of what many in this state have been describing for years: the weakening of the teacher pipeline in North Carolina because of policies set by the NCGA. From 2009-10 to 2016-17, the percentage of new teachers who came from the UNC … Continue reading Now Is The Time To Expand The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program To Include All NC Public Colleges & Universities – Especially Our HBCU’s

We are not the only state to start targeting teachers. Last month our new Lt. Governor established a task force to expose indoctrination in our public schools. As a concerned citizen you can now issue a complaint of indoctrination on the Lt. Gov.’s official website. Yesterday, Idaho announced the same type of initiative. Idaho Lt. Governor … Continue reading What Do North Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, and Idaho Have In Common? Indoctrination Witch Hunts

Today it was reported that NC has fallen to 33rd in the country for teacher pay. The process that NEA uses to figure teacher pay in this report is not as fluid as one might think. Too many states provide differing data and then it has to be normalized against other data when it hardly … Continue reading When Berger’s Spokesperson Says, “They Blocked Teacher Raises A Couple Of Years Ago,” He Forgets To Mention This.