Teacher salaries are losing ground fast in North Carolina, reports Dave DeWitt for NPR. In an effort to give more control to local districts, the state legislature passed sweeping changes to public education, many of which affected teachers directly. No state has seen a more dramatic decrease in teacher-salary rankings in the past 10 years, and other changes in public education are unprecedented, making North Carolina closely watched by education policymakers across the country. The Republican-controlled General Assembly ended teacher tenure, halted a salary bump for master's degrees, and eliminated a cap on class size. Tenure has been replaced by a merit-based system that awards long-term contracts to the top 25 percent of teachers, and shorter contracts to everyone else. Because North Carolina is a right-to-work state, teachers are prohibited from collective bargaining or going on strike. But they have fought back -- marching on the state capitol and staging a walk-in before the school day. They have also put pressure on Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. McCrory first defended the budget cuts and changes, but has since sounded more conciliatory. McCrory and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly are discussing ways to give teachers a small raise next year. Some teachers are also suing the state. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.