NC ranks near the bottom in US in pay for beginning teachers. How far behind is it?

North Carolina is inching up in national rankings for average teacher pay, but the state is still near the very bottom when it comes to pay for beginning educators.

The National Education Association is projecting that North Carolina ranks 34th in the nation this school year in average teacher pay, up from 36th last year and 39th two years ago. But the annual NEA teacher salary report released last week also puts North Carolina 46th in the nation when it comes to beginning teacher pay.

The report comes amid the ongoing debate over how much to pay beginning and experienced teachers.

“Teachers are the number one school-related factor impacting student outcomes,” Lauren Fox, senior director of policy and research for the Public School Forum of North Carolina, said in a statement.

“When we under-invest in our teachers, we under-invest in our students. With a beginning teacher salary falling below the minimum living wage and an average salary falling nearly $12,000 below the national average, it is no surprise that we are facing widespread teacher shortages across the state.”

Average teacher salary

Teacher pay and the state’s ranking in NEA’s annual salary report have been major political issues for decades.

In North Carolina, the state pays the base salary for teachers and an additional supplement for educators in most of the state’s counties. In addition, school districts often supplement the state pay.

The state reached as high as 20th on the NEA list in 2001 but, following the recession, dropped to 47th in 2013. The state’s ranking had reached back up to 31st in the 2018-19 school year.

The NEA estimates that North Carolina’s average teacher salary this year is $56,559. That’s lower than the $57,805 figure from the state Department of Public Instruction.

The national average salary for teachers is $68,469, up from last year’s total of $66,745, the NEA projects.

NC ‘teacher tax’

However, the NEA says teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation over the past decade. Adjusted for inflation, on average, the NEA says teachers are making $3,644 (6.4%) less than they did 10 years ago.

Kim Mackey, a social studies teacher at Green Hope High School in Cary, says the problem is even worse in North Carolina. With the help of Derek Scott, a computer programmer and husband of former Wake County school board member Heather Scott, Mackey created the NCTeacherTax.com website.

Mackey says she has suffered a “teacher tax” of $84,148 from teacher pay not keeping up with inflation since she started teaching in the state 16 years ago.

“Anyone teaching in North Carolina for the past decade has essentially taught a year for free,” Mackey said in an interview.

Beginning teacher pay

Over the past several years, state lawmakers have put more of a focus on raising salaries of teachers who are at or near the beginning of their career. But even with the raises, the NEA says North Carolina’s average beginning teacher salary of $37,646 ranks 46th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Only Nebraska, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri and Montana rank below North Carolina in beginning teacher pay.

In March, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt presented data showing that North Carolina’s cost-of-living adjusted pay of $39,695 for beginning teachers was the lowest in the Southeast last school year.

“We do need to give across-the-board pay raises, because our neighboring states invested heavily in teacher pay during the pandemic. Heavily,” Truitt said at the State Board of Education meeting in March. “And we did not.”

The State Board of Education is seeking legislative approval to pilot a program that would base teacher pay on effectiveness as opposed to years of experience. A draft model would set the beginning pay for most teachers at $40,000.

The budget adopted by the state House includes a 10.2% average raise for teachers over the next two years. It would raise the salary for beginning teachers next school year to $38,570.

The Senate hasn’t presented its budget proposal yet.

How much should teacher pay increase?

The House budget is below the 18% average raise for teachers over the next two years proposed by Gov. Roy Cooper. He’s also calling for the base salary for beginning teachers to be raised to $46,000.

It’s also less than the 24.5% pay raise for teachers proposed by the Public School Forum.

“We have the resources to provide fair and competitive pay for our educators — we simply need our lawmakers to choose to invest in what our students and our state need,” said Fox of the Public School Forum.

Mackey, the teacher, said state lawmakers need to significantly raise pay if North Carolina wants to recruit and retain teachers. If not, she said the number of teacher vacancies will only continue to rise.

“As a parent it’s hard for me to hope my kids will have a teacher on day one and the same one at the end of the year,” Mackey said.