Former Gov. Jim Hunt pushes for increase in NC teacher salaries

Speaking at a Charlotte breakfast forum Thursday, former Gov. Jim Hunt urged the community to do more to improve teacher pay, saying the state was falling behind in a critical area.

“We will do what it takes to attract people into teaching,” Hunt said. “We must do it as a state together.”

He spoke at MeckEd’s annual community breakfast, which was held at The Westin Charlotte. MeckEd is a nonprofit organization that advocates for public schools in Charlotte.

Hunt cited statistics for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools showing that the number of teachers leaving the district has doubled in the past four years. Excluding retirements, 399 left the district in the 2009-10 school year, a number that increased to 810 last school year.

“We’re behind all of our neighboring states in teacher pay. That won’t do,” he said.

Improving teacher pay must be a bipartisan effort that will take courage and vision, added Hunt, a Democrat, who was governor from 1977 to 1985 and from 1993 to 2001.

Over the summer, the Republican-controlled legislature approved teacher raises for an average of 7 percent, with newer teachers faring much better than more senior ones. Longevity pay, which gave educators a lump sum payment each year depending on how long they’d been working, was folded into the raise.

Hunt criticized the move, saying, “Veteran teachers ... received a mere pittance and lost their longevity pay.”

Meanwhile, enrollment in teacher education programs in the UNC system is on the decline.

“Where will our teachers come from?” Hunt asked. “The answer must be within North Carolina.”

At the event, Hunt praised CMS’ rising graduation rates and SAT scores, and decreasing dropout rates, as well as the history of advocating for education in the area.

Hunt told the crowd: “This is one of the best-educated counties and cities in North Carolina and America. ... I urge you to make CMS the No. 1 district in the U.S.”

Also at the event, MeckEd honored Howard Haworth as its 2014 Education Champion of the Year. Haworth was state Commerce Secretary under Gov. Jim Martin and was later appointed to the State Board of Education.

Haworth said he was looking forward to a new project that will involve CMS and local foundations that will focus on literacy “from cradle to third grade.”

Haworth and Hunt joined other speakers, including CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison, in urging approval of a measure on the ballot next month that would impose a quarter-cent increase on Mecklenburg County’s sales tax, which would benefit teacher pay and the arts.

“It’s right and necessary,” Hunt said.

Eighty percent of the revenue would go to CMS, while Central Piedmont Community College and the Arts & Science Council would each receive 7.5 percent and the remainder would go to the library system.

This story was originally published October 9, 2014 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Former Gov. Jim Hunt pushes for increase in NC teacher salaries."