NC Board of Education wants higher teacher pay and new pay for performance model

The State Board of Education is calling on North Carolina lawmakers to both sharply raise pay for teachers and to let them test a model that would overhaul how educators are compensated.

The board unanimously passed a resolution Thursday asking for in excess of a 10% raise for all teachers, as well as investments in beginning teacher pay to make North Carolina the leader in the Southeast.

The board also passed a motion asking the General Assembly to approve a six-year pilot program that would pay and license teachers based on their performance instead of their years of experience.

“Our teachers are raising our future,” said state board member Amy White. “We need to pay them.”

NC falling behind Southeast in teacher pay

The call for higher pay comes as North Carolina has slid down the ranks compared to neighboring states.

Currently, the starting base salary for North Carolina teachers is $37,000 and rises based on years of experience to $54,000 on the state salary schedule. Teachers can earn more money from additional local and state pay.

When adjusted for cost-of-living, the average teacher pay in North Carolina is $58,658, according to figures cited by State Superintendent Catherine Truitt. That’s well below most states in the Southeast.

It’s even worse for beginning teacher pay, where the state’s cost-of-living adjusted pay of $39,695 is the lowest in the region, according to the data.

“You can’t have quality education without having quality teachers, and you’re not going to have quality teachers if you don’t have quality pay,” said Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, a member of the state board. “That’s the bottom line.”

Robinson, a Republican, is running for governor next year.

The Public School Forum of North Carolina has urged lawmakers this year to raise teacher pay by 24.5%. The group also wants state lawmakers to fund the Leandro plan, which calls for raising educator pay.

Pay for performance

At the same time the state board wants higher pay for all teachers, members also want to push ahead with a new pay for performance model.

A draft model developed by a state commission would have teachers at the highest license level receive a base salary of $56,000 to $71,000. This doesn’t include an additional $5,000 or $15,000 a year they’d get for taking on advanced leadership roles.

Under the new model, teachers would advance if they can demonstrate their effectiveness. Teachers would provide evidence of their effectiveness based on their students’ test scores, performance reviews or other measures that would need to be developed.

“We need to restructure the way that we compensate teachers so that it is attracting this generation of teachers to the profession, and that involves creating a pathway to advancement that comes with more responsibility and more pay for greater impact,” Truitt said during Wednesday’s discussion of the pilot.

Truitt said the plan is to have five to 15 school districts of varying sizes volunteer to pilot the new teacher pay model. She said the number of districts will likely depend on how much funding is provided by state lawmakers.

No districts have been picked yet, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg is considering joining.

‘110% pure propaganda’

The state board needs the General Assembly to waive multiple state laws for the pilot to begin. In the resolution, the pilot would run for six years with next school year being the planning year.

The motion asking for the pilot includes a statement of need listing several reasons for the pilot, including how not enough people are entering the teaching profession.

“Current teacher compensation is not commensurate with that of other professionals who have similar educational attainment,” according to the statement of need. “Further, teachers lack opportunities to advance their careers while staying in the profession. These are barriers to teachers entering and remaining in the profession.”

The new model is opposed by the North Carolina Association of Educators, which calls it a merit pay plan. Some educators say it will lead to unhealthy competition as teachers fight for the limited number of higher-paid positions.

Chris Monte, a Wake County social studies teacher, called the board’s statement of need for the pilot “110% pure propaganda.”

“78% of NC teachers earn less than $60k/yr,” Monte tweeted Wednesday. “We aren’t lowering standards to license nurses & we shouldn’t being doing the same with teachers.”