Average NC teacher salary now more than $54,000, state says. Some question accuracy.
North Carolina’s average teacher salary is now more than $54,000 and is the second-highest in the Southeast, according to a new state report.
New figures from the state Department of Public Instruction estimate the average salary this school year for teachers to be $54,682 — $742 more than last year. North Carolina also moved up to two spots from being fourth in average salaries last year in the Southeast. Now among Southeast states, only Georgia is higher at $57,137.
The state’s ranking has gone up from six years ago, when the average salary was $44,990 and North Carolina was ranked 11th among the 12 Southeast states.
Budget fights slows salary growth
But this year’s growth was much slower than recent years, at only 1%, because to last year’s budget fight between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-led General Assembly. Cooper, with the support of the N.C. Association of Educators, vetoed last year’s budget in part because he said the teacher raises were “paltry.”
The budget fight left teachers with no state raises this school year.
The new figures were first reported Tuesday by the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank. Several Republican lawmakers and their supporters tweeted the new figures Tuesday.
“North Carolina’s average teacher salary ranks second in the Southeast, according to @NCPublicSchools,” GOP Rep. Debra Conrad of Forsyth County tweeted. “The commitment by the #ncga to education is bringing positive, tangible results across our state.”
But critics of the GOP-led legislature say the annual state report is misleading. It includes experienced teachers who get things that are denied to younger teachers, such as extra pay for master’s degrees. It also includes the local salary supplements provided by counties to boost what the state provides.
‘”Average’ does not mean ‘actual,’” Stu Egan, a Winston-Salem/Forysth County high school English teacher, wrote on his blog Tuesday. “But it sounds great to those who don’t understand the math.
“This report reflects a whopping double standard of the NC General Assembly and a total contradiction to what is really happening to average teacher pay.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Average NC teacher salary now more than $54,000, state says. Some question accuracy.."
