As usual, teacher compensation will be the major focus of lawmakers during the short session.
Over the last four years, the N.C. General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory have raised average teacher pay by 10.3 percent. According to the latest available data from the National Education Association, those increases have lifted North Carolina’s national teacher pay ranking from 47th to 42nd in the nation.
Lawmakers and the governor have stated their intent to boost teacher pay to remain competitive with other states in the Southeast, but there is no consensus about how much taxpayer money should be used to do so.
McCrory recommended a 5 percent teacher pay increase, which would boost the average base salary for 10-month teachers from $47,900 to over $50,000 a year. He also recommended granting teachers and principals an average 3.5 percent bonus that would focus on awarding North Carolina’s most experienced teachers.
Alternatively, members of the General Assembly have pitched teacher pay raises of between 2.5 and 3.5 percent. The final number will depend on several factors, particularly the size of the expected budget surplus and budgetary pressures and priorities, such as health and human services initiatives or pay increases for other state employees.
The General Assembly will also consider a plan that would allow a so-called Achievement School District to supervise and operate five of North Carolina’s lowest-performing elementary schools. The N.C. State Board of Education would oversee the ASD and select an established, independent entity to manage it.
School districts that transfer a school to the ASD would then be allowed to establish an “innovation zone.” Under this plan, up to three of the district’s continually low-performing schools would be granted the same exemptions from statutes and rules that public charter schools receive.
Republican lawmakers have evaluated these ideas carefully in an interim committee and remain cautious. They recognize that the initial results from similar plans in other states are encouraging but did not necessarily produce immediate or consistent gains in student achievement.
As such, the design of North Carolina’s ASD legislation will build on the considerable strengths of the idea, while accounting for shortcomings identified by ASDs in other states.
A number of additional issues will be on the table. School choice proponents would like to see additional funding to meet the growing demand for private school scholarships awarded to low-income and, as McCrory recommended in his budget, special-needs students.
Charter school advocates are likely to ask legislators to tweak counterproductive regulations and the unbalanced charter funding system.
The General Assembly undoubtedly will address teacher recruitment, retention, and quality issues. A recent USA Today article revealed that some North Carolina school districts have done a poor job of vetting candidates for classroom teacher positions. In response, lawmakers are looking at legislation that strengthens confidentiality protections, authorizes fingerprint background checks, and allows the State Board of Education to share background check information with school boards.
In addition, legislators will consider solutions to longstanding teacher shortages in math, science, and special education. McCrory outlined a plan to fund 300 college scholarships to support math and science education students at North Carolina institutions, and it is very possible that the General Assembly will adopt a similar approach.
They also may consider adding incentives to the state salary schedule, thereby strengthening recruitment and retention of those who possess requisite credentials, skills, and experience.
In the end, if the short session is as short as promised, then lawmakers will wait until 2017 to consider more comprehensive changes to state education policy.
Dr. Terry Stoops (@TerryStoops) is director of research and education studies at the John Locke Foundation.