The Teacher Pay Discussion Should Continue
It would be unwise to expect detailed policy prescriptions from a task force that has met just four times.
Real numbers offer little support for left-wing commentators’ talking points.
Social media outlets present new challenges to the traditional teacher-student relationship.
RALEIGH — The latest Teacher Turnover Report presented in September to the state Board of Education revealed that an average of 12.72 percent of teachers statewide left their classrooms from March 2008 to March 2009.
Maximizing the ranks and average pay of teachers is not an education-reform agenda. It is just a re-election agenda.
If the NCAE itself gave out pay raises for employees based on the merits of its arguments, it would have saved a lot of money in recent years.
If NC policymakers want to lead on teacher compensation, they should abolish statewide regulations that dictate how local schools can hire, fire, and pay their teaching professionals.
The most-recent study, by JLF education analyst Terry Stoops, found that North Carolina’s teacher compensation was $1,000 higher than the national median and $2,700 above the national average.
RALEIGH — North Carolina teachers, on average, earn $2,700 more each year than their peers across the country once their pay is adjusted for cost of living and other factors, according to a new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report.
The state legislature passed a budget that raised spending 10 percent and set the state up for another fiscal fall. But many North Carolinians will learn little more about it than the fact that it contained a big pay raise for teachers.
Do minimum wages keep more highly educated, and thus—by federal No Child Left Behind standards—more 'highly qualified' teachers out of the classroom? When wages are legally determined and inflexible downward, the demand side of the market will seek out the lower-wage employee, as long as that employee meets legal professional standards. The teacher supply problem may really be a teacher demand problem.
Members of a new state task force on teacher licensure and retention are downplaying the potential effects of a controversial bill on out-of-state teachers. They are right — there is a broader question.