While the candidates for North Carolina governor told a convention of state educators how they would address teacher pay and improve services for public schools on Friday morning, New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley said the system needed to do better a better job at providing resources for teachers and students.
As the host for the N.C. School Association of School Administrators annual conference, Markley spoke to the group about the priorities for the 2016 legislative agenda, which also included efforts to improve teacher recruitment. Primarily, Markley voiced the group’s position that education funding in the state is too low.
“Invest in adequate resources for our students. We are 46th in the nation in per-pupil funding,” Markley said. He also said the state ranked 50th in pay for principals.
Overall, the school system needs to increase base pay for all teachers before implementing any pay changes that differentiate based on experience or discipline. The group also urged legislators to provide a pay increase for all school-based administrators that mirrors the increases provided to teachers.
The group also called for changes in teacher licensing standards to develop reciprocity for other states. Markley said it didn’t make sense that North Carolina accepts other states’ driver’s licenses, but requires testing for teachers from other states. One idea was to expedite licensing for spouses of military members and veterans.
After Markley spoke, Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor, and Governor Pat McCrory spoke to the group in separate addresses. Where McCrory pointed to improvements in the school system, Cooper spoke of declining morale.
“You know and I know that over the past few years, public education has hit hard times,” Cooper said. “What I hear from teachers is they feel a lack of respect. I’m talking about a lack of respect from the governor and the legislature.”
But McCrory said that many of the problems in the education system, including pay disparities, could be traced back to his predecessors. He said schools have raised pay of teachers with less than 10 years’ experience and that his proposal to raise teacher pay by 5 percent, with a 3.5 percent increase in bonus, would raise the average teacher salary to $50,000.
The candidates also addressed the controversial House Bill 2, which addressed transgendered use of bathrooms, as well as other issues like civil rights lawsuits and the minimum wage.
Cooper said the bill was discriminatory and could potentially threaten federal funding for schools. But in his speech, McCrory said that HB 2 was the subject of a “ridiculous debate,” much of which isn’t even occurring within the state.
“It’s not about discrimination. It’s about common-sense etiquette,” McCrory said.
