Senator Jeff Tarte on Raising Teacher Pay in NC
My Republican Senate colleagues and I unveiled what we believe is a groundbreaking plan to provide North Carolina public school teachers with an average 11.2% permanent pay raise beginning July 1. This new teacher pay plan will move North Carolina from the 47th ranking for overall teacher pay to 27th in the current national rankings! Teachers in their 8th year will receive a 20% pay increase!!!
The Senate and Governor’s plans were crafted after listening to teachers, principals, and other education experts. Governor McCrory earlier introduced an education plan which has served as guidance for this plan. The Governor’s plan, Career Pathways, appears well founded on solid research and best practices from other school systems around the country. The House of Representatives will also have significant input into the final version of the plan that will eventually be approved and implemented. It is my intention to personally vet any teacher pay plan with Superintendent Heath Morrison, CMS School Board members, teachers, principals and parents as appropriate. Every plan presented has its’ own set of issues and concerns. I am excited many talented and caring people are at the table working towards an agreeable solution to this critically important issue for our teachers, children and our great state.
The plan creates an entirely new base pay scale designed to attract and keep the best teachers in the classroom. $5,800 will be the average annual salary increase per teacher in the first year of implementation.
Sen. Tarte teaching a civics lesson to the Student Council at Bailey Middle School.
If this plan or the final version adopted is close to this plan, North Carolina will no longer have our teachers at the bottom pay scale nationally. Besides the monumental ascension in the national rankings, the plan propels the state ahead of Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina, moving North Carolina from 9th to 3rd in the Southeast. This should stop the exodus of teachers leaving to go to neighboring states simply for increased pay. This pay plan would give NC a competitive advantage in hiring teachers.
The NC Senate Republicans, GOP House members and the Governor want our teachers to know they are important. We recognize their professionalism, dedication and commitment to teaching excellence. We know every financial ask of the North Carolina General Assembly cannot be met, but significantly increasing pay for our teachers is our top priority and we have outlined a detailed plan that achieves that goal!
The Senate proposal would repeal the automatic loss of tenure in 2018 and instead offer teachers a choice of whether to maintain that status. Teachers who decide to work on annual contracts for the 2014-15 school year would move to the new pay scale and receive the substantial salary increase. Those who choose to keep tenure would remain on the current pay schedule. I anticipate teachers near retirement will opt to keep their career status and forego the switch to the new pay schedule. But, maybe not?
Next, the proposal reinstates supplemental pay for teachers with Master’s degrees and those who have begun the process of earning their graduate degree. Also, funds are allocated so local school boards and their leadership can provide additional discretionary increases in pay to reward top performers.
A recent visit to East Mecklenburg High School.
Accompanied with Sen. Bob Rucho, Rep Bill Brawley, Rep Rob Bryan, CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison, and East Meck High School administration.
Finally, Senate Republicans have pledged to pay for the raises with recurring revenue sources and without a tax hike. Paying for the teacher pay increases comes with difficult choices to be made. The first source for potential funds comes from good news. The projected Medicaid shortfall was forecast by some to be as high as $250M. Current projections show we will “only need” an additional $94M to meet the state’s obligations.
Again, the considerations on how to fund any permanent teacher pay increase will require thoughtful debate and dialog. This is where the colloquial phrase, “where the rubber meets the road,” rings true, in that we now have to figure out how to pay for it! The price is that someone’s priority will have to give way to enable this plan.
I believe sources of funding for increased teacher pay being considered may include, but are not limited to, the following: shifting the funding for some Teacher Assistants to the counties and local school systems, elimination of open positions in various departments and state agencies that have permanent funding, restructuring of Central Offices and the Department of Public Instruction, as well as selected budget cuts to lower priority items.
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