Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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MARCH 19-25, 2014 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM When the Precious Jewels were school age, our family referred to the entire enterprise as Adventures in Education. And adventures there were! Some years were better than others for all sorts of reasons, including school administration, classroom mixtures and the developmental stage and state of mind of a given Precious Jewel. Critically important, of course, were teachers, some of whom were wonderful and became our friends. Some were merely adequate, and some barely functioned. A handful were absolutely stellar, and I know in my mother's heart that they helped shape the adults the Precious Jewels have become. The bottom line is that a dedicated and gifted teacher can overcome many negatives in school situations, but even the best school administrators, sophisticated technology, and positive classroom situations cannot make up for a sub-standard teacher. All of that being said, North Carolina is not doing right by her public school teachers — definitely not the good, but neither the bad, nor the so-so. In fact, we seem to be running them off in droves and putting our own classrooms and the children inhabiting them at risk of failing their own adventures in education. Here are some brutal facts. Teacher turnover in North Carolina is the second highest in a decade. More teachers are taking early retirement than in recent years, and enrollments in UNC system education programs is down seven percent. These facts add up to fewer teachers and larger classrooms as our state's population continues to grow. North Carolina's overall teacher turnover rate was 14.33 percent last year. That translates to 13,616 individual teachers leaving our classrooms and, in many cases, leaving our communities and taking their families with them. In our neck of the woods, turnover numbers are these — Cumberland, 17 percent (629 teachers), Harnett, 18 percent (221 teachers), Robeson, 18 percent (273 teachers), and Hoke, a stunning 27+ percent (155 teachers). Just imagine trying to operate your business or organization with numbers like those. So why are all these teachers flying the classroom coop? Each person has his or her own reasons, of course, but among the most often cited is money. Teachers simply cannot live much less support a family on what North Carolina pays them. Base pay for a new teacher with a bachelor's degree is $30,800. After five years on the job, he or she will get a raise to $31,220 with small incremental increases thereafter to a maximum of $53,180 after thirty-six years of teaching. Yes, you read that correctly — 36 years of professional work. It is true that teachers in school systems that provide supplemental pay and those with advanced degrees make a bit more, but it is also fair to say that no one is getting rich teaching in the Tar Heel state. And, with North Carolina's average teacher salaries at 46th in the nation and new teacher salaries at 48th, there is a long, long way to go. Last year, the General Assembly added insult to injury by doing away with teacher tenure, by forcing 25 percent of a school system's teachers to compete with each other for a paltry $500 raise, and by diverting public school tax dollars to the private sector in the form of school vouchers. Already this year, trial balloons were floated in Raleigh to raise salaries of beginning teachers but not experienced ones, a balloon that understandably drew hostile fire from teachers across the state. In addition, a top legislative budget writer said that month that across the board teacher pay increases from the state are unlikely — that local school districts, including low-wealth Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson, and Harnett, will be asked to pay more. It must be said that teachers have other legitimate complaints besides pay. Many rightly say that the increasing burden of testing, of paperwork, of school responsibilities outside their classrooms, of students with attitudes and parents who are either uninvolved or too involved are affecting their job performance and their job satisfaction. These complaints, however real and justified, are difficult to quantify. Defenders of the status quo often point to these other complaints as well as criticizing North Carolina's teachers on many different, sometimes anecdotal, fronts. Those, too, are difficult to nail down, much less quantify. So I will just stick to the numbers regarding what is happening to North Carolina's teachers, which reminds me of the words of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a man long accustomed to controversy. Said Monyihan, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." North Carolina's Precious Jewels are depending on us to make their adventures in education productive ones. Adventures in Education by MARGARET DICKSON MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Daily Specials • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner Fresh Seafood • Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts • Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests North Carolina is not doing right by her public school teachers