Two years without raises drops NC teacher pay to 33rd in the nation, NEA says
Two straight years of no teacher raises have dropped North Carolina down the national rankings for average teacher pay, according to a new report from the National Education Association.
The NEA salary report released Monday estimated that North Carolina’s average teacher salary is $54,392, up slightly from last school year’s revised total of $54,150. The NEA projects that North Carolina is ranked 33rd in the nation, the same as last school year, but down from 31st in the 2018-19 school year.
The state’s NEA ranking has rebounded from when North Carolina had fallen to 47th in the rankings in 2013 after the recession. But the state has slipped as the budget fight between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-led General Assembly have resulted in teachers getting no raises for the past two years.
Cooper, with the support of the N.C. Association of Educators, vetoed the state budget in 2019 in part because he said the average 3.9% teacher raises over two years were insufficient. He later vetoed a standalone bill that included the teacher raises, again saying they were “paltry.”
“The salary ranking is not surprising considering Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a no-strings-attached 3.9% teacher pay raise and Democrats in the legislature voted to sustain his veto,” Pat Ryan, a spokesman for Senate leader Phil Berger, said Monday in a statement. “Had Democrats not blocked the Republican-sponsored teacher pay raise bill, then teachers would be earning more money today. It’s as simple as that.”
Who’s to blame for lack of raises?
Tamika Walker Kelly, president of NCAE, says the group stands by rejecting the GOP’s legislature’s proposed raises. She said it was a “matter of principle” to push for higher raises than offered.
”They deserved a higher pay raise when we were in budget talks then,” Walker Kelly said in an interview Monday with The News & Observer. “They deserve a professional pay raise just like any other professionals this go around.”
Last year, state legislative leaders approved giving all teachers a $350 bonus and salary step increases given to some educators for each additional year of experience.
Republican legislators had cited the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic to not give new raises while pointing back to the raises given in prior years. The state’s average teacher salary has risen 21% since 2014.
Terry Stoops, director of the John Locke Foundation’s Center For Effective Education, says don’t blame the GOP.
“Since 2019, North Carolina’s average teacher salary has increased by only $452, or 0.8 percent,” Stoops wrote in a blog post this month. “What accounts for the slow growth in salaries?
“The primary culprits are Democratic obstructionism and uncertain economic conditions at the height of the pandemic.
Cooper proposes teacher raises and bonuses
This year, Cooper has proposed giving teachers an average 10% raise over the next two years, the News & Observer previously reported. He’s also proposed restoring master’s degree pay for teachers and giving educators a $2,000 bonus this year and a $1,000 bonus next year.
It’s uncertain how much lawmakers will provide this year for raises.
“Everyone wants to support our teachers,” Walker Kelly said. “I hope the leadership in the General Assembly will work together with the governor to pass pay raises for our educators.”
The new NEA report puts the estimated average teacher salary in the U.S. at $65,090 That’s up from $64,133 last school year.
NEA gets its North Carolina figures from the state. Last year, DPI had estimated the state’s average teacher salary to be $54,682 before lowering the final number.
Some question the validity of the state salary figures because they include experienced teachers who get things that are denied to younger teachers, such as extra pay for master’s degrees. They also include the local salary supplements provided by counties to boost what the state provides.
Walker Kelly said it’s “incredibly misleading” to say the average North Carolina teacher makes $54,392 a year.
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Two years without raises drops NC teacher pay to 33rd in the nation, NEA says."
