Next week, for, you guessed it, a raise. The May 16, 2018 walkout is being organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators.
Ironically, “The overall teacher attrition rate dipped last year and remains relatively low at 8.7 percent,” Dr. Terry Stoops writes on The Carolina Journal. “On the Teacher Working Conditions Survey, the vast majority of teachers report their school is a ‘good place to work and learn.'”
He also notes that despite the clamor for more pay and benefits, teaching in tar heel schools can be quite beneficial. “By the 2013-14 school year, average teacher pay had dipped to $44,990 and was among the lowest in the Southeast,” he notes. “In contrast, benefit payments (conspicuously missing from the teacher pay debate) steadily increased during this period. Social Security and retirement contributions for individual teachers neared $9,200, and the state added close to $5,300 for health insurance.”
“With Medicaid spending under control, the Republican-controlled legislature had access to sufficient revenue to resume the practice of awarding salary and experience-based increases, enacting targeted bonus programs, and keeping up with the rising costs of employee benefits. And that’s what they did.”
“After four consecutive years of compensation increases, average teacher pay surged to $51,214 this year and is in the top half of southeastern states. Social Security and retirement contributions exceeded $11,600. The state subsidy for health insurance nears $5,900 and will climb to more than $6,100 next year.”
