Proposal: District flexibility, restored master’s pay to benefit educators

(The Center Square) – Increased pay for educators would range from $9,000 to $12,000 and extra compensation for teachers with master’s degrees would be reinstated if a Republican lawmaker’s bill passes in North Carolina.

Raise Teacher Pay & Dollar Allot.Study, also known as House Bill 192, is in the Committee on Appropriations in the state House of Representatives. Support for the bill shepherded by Rep. Erin Paré, R-Wake, has the broad support of 56 lawmakers inclusive of both Republicans and Democrats.

Even the North Carolina Association of Educators, a union-like advocacy organization, has given endorsement despite fair warning from the sponsor.

“It would be best for the NCAE to sit this one out and allow constructive work to be done on behalf of North Carolina teachers,” Paré says. “The involvement of this hyper-partisan union injects unnecessary political jargon into a serious discussion. I look forward to continuing to fight for this bill in order to create an environment in North Carolina that attracts and retains the best teachers.”

Raise Teacher Pay & Dollar Allot.Study, to be enacted July 1 if adopted, would generate an appropriation just $23 million short of $1.6 billion in the 2025-26 budget.

The starting pay for first-year teachers would scale between $41,000 and $50,000. The most experienced would increase to between $55,950 and $68,230.

Paré’s proposal combats the critiques of previous plans and the model in place while not altogether changing it. Teachers with 15 to 24 years of experience remain held flat, there’s a raise for after 25 years and then flat again.

There is a step scale from zero years experience to 15.

In previous proposals, more experienced teachers usually got little, and the less experienced even to first-year teachers more. The Republicans in the Senate, and their priorities, have also been a stumbling block to previous proposals from their party mates in the lower chamber.

Former Gov. Roy Cooper, like past Democrats in the office before him, has long supported better pay for teachers as does Gov. Josh Stein today. Cooper vetoed more biennial budgets than he signed, including at the expense of teachers’ raises because he wanted them to get more money than offered.

“Record numbers of teachers are being forced out of the profession, and teacher shortages are making it harder to provide every student with an excellent education,” a statement from the North Carolina Association of Educators says. “But it’s going to take more than a bill. It’s going to take legislative leadership with the strength and commitment to get it through the budget process. That’s something we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Primary cosponsor with Paré, founder of a nonprofit for kids in music education, include a key budget writer in Forsyth County Republican Rep. Donny Lambeth. It also includes Rep. Tricia Cotham, R-Mecklenburg, not only a former Democrat and educator but vice chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and chairman of the education arm of the latter.

Rep. Mike Schietzelt, R-Wake, is the fourth cosponsor.

In addition to the pay changes, Paré wants the North Carolina Collaboratory to study a dollar allotment system for public school employee compensation. Paré said this should create a way for the state to support all 115 school districts, each with “more flexibility to differentiate pay in order to hire and retain good people for high demand, hard to hire positions in schools.”

Often, context is lost in the debate on teacher pay and teacher shortages. There is a total volume of teachers needed, and there is the need for teachers in specific areas of expertise such as special needs, science or English, etc.

“Being able to recruit and retain great teachers in North Carolina is an important part of improving education outcomes and making sure North Carolina is competitive for talent in our schools,” Paré said in a release. “My bill will increase starting teacher pay to $50,000 and restore master’s degree pay. As a mom of two kids in public school myself, it is important to me that we invest in public education in North Carolina; making sure we are competitive with teacher pay is top priority.”

Twenty-three more Republicans are joining the four primary sponsors. The House has just 49 Democrats and 29 are cosponsoring.

The list from the minority party includes Reps. Mary Belk, Terry Brown, Laura Budd, Becky Carney, Carla Cunningham, Beth Helfrich, Brandon Lofton, Carolyn Logan, Jordan Lopez and Nasif Majeed of Mecklenburg County; Cecil Brockman, Tracy Clark, Pricey Harrison and Amos Quick of Guilford County.

Also, Reps. Gloristine Brown of Pitt County; Deb Butler of New Hanover County; Maria Cervania, Sarah Crawford, Ya Liu of Wake County; Mike Colvin, Dr. Frances Jackson and Charles Smith of Cumberland County; Zack Hawkins of Durham County; Ray Jeffers of Person County; Garland Pierce of Scotland County; Dante Pittman of Wilson County; Lindsey Prather of Buncombe County; Renee Price of Orange County; and Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County.