Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board members are leading a push for higher teacher salaries in North Carolina this fall and asking the 114 other public school boards in the state to join in.
Teachers are slated to get an average raise of around 3% this year, according to salary schedules approved by the N.C. General Assembly in 2023. However, the state’s inflation rate over this past year averaged around 3.8%, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. As a result, most teachers in the state will be taking a pay cut this year when accounting for inflation, unless the General Assembly decides to act.
The CMS Board of Education wrote to N.C. Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore on Aug. 1, “imploring” legislators to pass a budget with raises of at least 5% for public school staff, including teachers.
“These same teachers that are working tirelessly on behalf of the approximate 1.4 million students in our schools should not be forced to take a pay cut due to political discord outside of their control,” CMS Board Chair Stephanie Sneed and Board Member Summer Nunn wrote in the request. Nunn also chairs the board’s Intergovernmental Relationships Committee.
So far, Nunn’s heard back from several lawmakers — she didn’t specify which ones — and wants to set up meetings with more. The board called on other school boards around the state Tuesday to join in its efforts.
“By not passing an updated budget that helps educators’ keep pace with inflation, our General Assembly is hurting every North Carolina district’s ability to recruit and retain teachers,” Nunn wrote in an email sent to the state’s public school boards obtained by The Charlotte Observer. “Please join school boards across the state to stop the North Carolina teacher pay cut – a pay cut that is affecting every North Carolina county,” she wrote.
Four additional school boards signed the letter within 24 hours of Nunn sending it, and she expects many more will by the end of the week. She hopes lawmakers will be more likely to act if they see the issue is affecting the whole state instead of just Mecklenburg County where the cost of living is higher.
“I was speaking to other school board members from different parts of the state, and even the public schools in the rural counties are struggling to get teacher pay where it needs to be, too,” Nunn told The Observer. “So it’s not just a Mecklenburg County issue. It’s a statewide issue.”
Current teacher pay in NC
Nunn said counties on the state’s borders are losing teachers to Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia, since they can find better pay in those states. Among nearby districts, Rock Hill increased its base teacher pay to $52,000 earlier this summer. Fort Mill teacher pay starts at $50,000.
North Carolina public schools last year alone saw 11.5% of teachers leave their jobs for any reason, including struggling to afford the cost of living.
In North Carolina, the state legislature determines a statewide salary schedule for teachers, and individual school districts can add on supplements with approval and funding from the county. The statewide salary for starting teachers in North Carolina was $39,000 during the 2023-24 school year. In CMS, starting teachers made around $46,300.
Starting teachers in North Carolina are projected to make $41,000 during the 2024-25 school year. Beginning educators in CMS will make approximately $48,600 with the added supplement from the district.
Meanwhile in Mecklenburg County, the minimum living wage required by a single adult with no children sits just under $51,000 a year, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator.
“It shocks me how many people don’t know that we don’t even pay our teachers a liveable wage,” Nunn said. “Another thing people don’t understand is that the school board doesn’t control teacher salaries. The state does.”
North Carolina is still below average when it comes to average teacher pay — 38th in the country for the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Education Association. It’s projected to drop to 41st during the 2024-25 school year. For starting teacher pay specifically, North Carolina came in at 42nd in the nation this year.
Challenges in the General Assembly
The North Carolina House of Representatives proposed a budget revision in June to give teachers a 4.5% raise, but it stalled in the Senate. So, the raise passed last year still stands.
“The House is really committed to making sure that we do something for our state employees and for our teachers,” House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters at the time. “And we feel like it’s important, if nothing more than to go ahead and make a statement.”
Neither Moore nor Senate leader Phil Berger responded to The Observer’s request for comment.
Nunn says the CMS board feels an urgency to get teacher raises passed now because state legislature seats are up for grabs in November.
“If they don’t pass it now, the next opportunity will be post election, so you don’t know that they would take this up first thing,” Nunn said. “Our fear is this just gets lost in new members coming in and old members coming out and this old budget getting pushed.”
The raises will have to pass as part of the larger budget, which includes a host of other considerations and potential tension points for legislators. Still, Nunn is optimistic.
“I think if you look at the general electorate, they agree that teachers deserve raises,” she said. “I’m hoping they’ll see it’s not just a large county that needs this. It’s a statewide issue.”
