NC commission floats teacher pay revamp weeks after budget raises

A state commission appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and Republican legislative leaders is weighing a major overhaul of teacher pay, weeks after lawmakers OK’d a budget with average teacher raises of around 8%.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education met virtually July 27 for its fourth meeting. It was the panel’s first session devoted to drafting formal recommendations rather than hearing testimony.

Members converged on a set of proposals that could carry a heavy price tag: higher teacher compensation, a restored recruitment program for new teachers, expanded pre-K funding, a consistent statewide reading curriculum, and required summer literacy camps for struggling readers.

The commission plans to vote on its first set of recommendations Sept. 28. A revised draft will circulate before the commission’s Aug. 31 in-person meeting.

Stein, Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger of Rockingham County, and House Speaker Destin Hall of Caldwell County announced the commission in March. Its 29 members include lawmakers, superintendents, teachers, and business leaders.

“This is a unique moment for public education in North Carolina,” said co-chair Anne Faircloth, a Sampson County farmer. “We are a broad and diverse group of folks who care deeply about the issues and have been jointly selected by both our governor and our Senate and House leaders. What we say today and going forward matters, and it can have real and lasting impact.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green told the panel the pay recommendation should be direct.

“We need to pay our teachers more,” Green said. He called for “beginning teachers as well as veteran teachers getting both to be the highest in the Southeast, which would align with the strategic plan for DPI and the State Board of Education.”

Other members went further. Matthew Bristow-Smith, principal of Edgecombe Early College High School and a former teacher, said the state has “lowered the quality of living for teachers because the earning power of what teachers actually make is less than it was a decade ago.” He proposed indexing teacher salaries to inflation “so that we don’t go backwards.”

“I know that’s controversial,” he added.

Lisa Godwin, a teacher who said her pay is frozen on the current schedule, pushed for across-the-board raises, retention bonuses, and a return to longevity pay. She said State Health Plan premium increases have outpaced her raises.

“I personally have taken cuts in pay because I have to have my husband, who’s a small business owner, on my insurance,” she said.

Not every voice endorsed adding money to the existing system. Brenda Berg, CEO of the business-led education group BEST NC, called the current salary schedule “very misleading,” noting teachers on average do receive annual increases. “It implies that there is no increase when there are increases,” Berg said.

Rather than raising pay within the current structure, Berg urged the commission to study alternatives — including models in other states that set a benchmark salary with scheduled increases — and to “figure out a better way to do it than just piling on to the old system that’s frankly not working for anyone quite well enough.”

Berg also urged the panel to restore a program her own organization runs. TeachNC, a teacher-recruitment initiative that BEST NC operates in partnership with the Department of Public Instruction, was eliminated in the budget effective July 1. Berg proposed the commission recommend bringing it back, fully funded, on July 1, 2027.

The figures behind the pitch came from Berg herself. She told members TeachNC recruited 3,700 candidates into educator-preparation programs last year, a 20% increase in enrollment at a cost of less than $1 million.

On reading instruction, all three breakout groups backed a consistent statewide K-3 curriculum. Members debated whether the state should adopt one curriculum or approve two or three options. Green urged caution on consolidating to one, saying even two or three “would be a significant and positive change.”

Members also discussed requiring summer literacy camps for struggling readers. They acknowledged open questions about transportation costs, staffing, and whether effectiveness data exists. Some floated a Tennessee-style tutoring pilot.

The new budget was July 7 when Stein signed it into law. The commission takes up its second charge, administrative operations, at the Aug. 31 meeting. A third charge, education leadership, begins in November.

“NC commission floats teacher pay revamp weeks after budget raises” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.