Is a ‘real’ raise for NC teachers coming this year from the General Assembly?
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- Stein proposed $371 million this fiscal year and $734 million in the next year for raises.
- Republican leaders Hall and Berger say they are optimistic but have not agreed on raises.
- House Democrats say General Assembly failed to pass a 2025 budget, delaying pay decisions.
House Democrats in North Carolina are frustrated at the long delay in raises for teachers, as the General Assembly failed to pass a budget in 2025.
“I just want it to be real. I want this to be a sought-after profession,” House Minority Leader Robert Reives, a Chatham County Democrat, said Wednesday.
As the legislative short session entered its second day, pressure mounted to give raises to teachers and state employees and pass other spending delayed by a budget impasse between Republican House and Senate leaders.
Thousands of teachers are expected to march in downtown Raleigh on May 1 for raises, among other education advocacy issues.
Rep. Brandon Lofton, a Charlotte Democrat, worried about teachers leaving jobs because of the pay, and not being able to recruit new teachers.
Lofton said his son’s high school math teacher quit during the year, and because the school couldn’t fill the job, his son was taught on Zoom the rest of the semester by a teacher in another classroom.
Another teacher told him she was “quitting and leaving the profession because she could no longer afford to teach in North Carolina,” he said.
Democrats on teacher raises vs. private school vouchers
Democrats have been frustrated by the amount of teacher raises compared to spending on private school vouchers as part of what’s called the Opportunity Scholarship program, which has long been a priority of Republican leaders in the General Assembly.
“That was in 2023, and you can imagine my frustration as a parent, and then on top of that as a legislator, because then we came to Raleigh and we passed the budget that put more money into private school vouchers than they did into teacher raises,” Lofton said.
Stein’s latest budget proposal would spend $371 million on raises for teachers and other school personnel before the end of this fiscal year. He proposed spending $734 million in the new fiscal year that begins July 1 for those raises.
Stein wants there to be limits again on the voucher program, which is now available to all families regardless of income.
“My view is, let’s invest in public schools so that they don’t fail, and let’s give parents choice within the public school system through magnet schools and other ways of creating choice within the public school system, before we abandon it and create a second, competing system that requires its own resources,” Stein told The N&O Tueday during a news conference about his budget proposal.
The governor’s latest plan would increase starting teacher pay to the highest in the Southeast, at just under $50,000 a year, and give an average 11% raise for other teachers over two years to help eliminate a pay plateau that experienced teachers reach on the current salary schedule.
Reives wants to go beyond that.
He wants the amount to be the highest nationally once adjusted for cost of living, not just the highest in the Southeast, he said during a news conference Wednesday at the Legislative Building in Raleigh.
“I want us to have a teacher wage that puts us at the top. And teacher wages — when you compare it to cost of living, obviously, if you live in New York and you’re making $100,000 a year, that’s a whole different thing to make $100,000 a year down here,” Reives said.
“I want people to seek out North Carolina .... I would want them to get back pay for the fact that we didn’t pass the budget (in 2025). I would want them to get raises that are real raises and not these raises we’ve been doing for the last 10 years that (are not across the board),” he said.
No amount yet on teacher raises from Republicans
Republican House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters on Tuesday that they “want to make North Carolina a leader on teacher pay.”
House Republicans also support raising starting teacher pay to the highest in the Southeast, which earned the support of a majority of House Democrats when they voted on their budget bill last year. The Senate proposed lower raises, and the two chambers did not make a deal.
But on Tuesday, both Hall and Republican Senate leader Phil Berger were optimistic about budget talks, including raises for teachers.
Neither gave numbers, though. At least not yet.
Hall said that once he and Berger agree on a tax policy package, they will know the amount of spending available for teacher raises.
Berger, likewise, said they haven’t yet settled on an amount.
“I’m confident that we’ll have the capacity to continue what we’ve done over the years, which is increase spending in education, increase teacher salaries in education, increase salaries for state employees,” Berger said.
Asked about the possibility of raising starting teacher pay to the highest in the Southeast, Berger said he thinks they “should make progress in that direction,” but is not sure if they’ll reach that this year.
This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Is a ‘real’ raise for NC teachers coming this year from the General Assembly?."
