NC Republicans have provided meaningful teacher raises

For years, Democrats have seized upon teacher pay as an electioneering tool to convince people to vote for them.

The logic goes something like this: Teachers educate your children, North Carolina Republicans haven’t provided teachers with “meaningful” raises, therefore you should support Democrats.

Here’s the problem with that logic: North Carolina Republicans provided teachers with the third-highest pay raises in the entire country since 2014. If that’s not truly meaningful, what is?

Democrats voted against every one of those raises. Democrats opposed the highest pay raise in the country in 2014, the second-highest pay in 2016, and the third-highest in 2018.

Since Republicans took control of the legislature, North Carolina’s average teacher pay has increased from 47th in the country to 29th. North Carolina teacher pay now ranks second-highest in the southeast.

These facts come directly from the teachers’ own advocacy organization, the National Education Association, which is the umbrella group for the N.C. Association of Educators.

How, then, do Democrats who use teacher pay as a political tool respond to these facts? They pretend these meaningful raises don’t exist.

A recent editorial in the Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer is illustrative of the selective attention to facts. The editorial read, in part, “Republican lawmakers are reluctant to give teachers the kind of boost that would put their compensation ahead of inflation…The Republicans didn’t want to truly lift public education even when the economy was booming.”

But biennial teacher raises outpaced inflation for the past eight years. Since then 2013, when the budget finally recovered from the recession, Teacher salaries have increased by 20 percent – which is two-and-a-half times higher than the rate of inflation, and the third-highest raise in the country.

While the economy was booming, Republicans increased education spending by a cumulative $9 billion, using 2013 as a baseline. Even when adjusted for inflation, per-pupil spending has increased by 14% under Republican rule. But you don’t see these facts printed – all you see are adverbs like “truly” or “meaningfully” that prime readers to believe an alternate reality.

But wait, they say, inflation-adjusted teacher pay is still lower than it was in 2009! Yes, that is true. During the 2000s, the Democrat-controlled legislature went on a spending spree. When the recession hit, the Democrats had no savings despite some of the highest taxes in the southeast. They had to fire teachers and slash their salaries.

We believe that roller coaster-style budgeting is unwise. When the state’s finances recovered in 2013, we methodically and meaningfully raised teacher pay every year with an eye toward avoiding layoffs and salary cuts when the inevitable recession hit.

And it’s a good thing we did. Now, facing an unprecedented $5 billion shortfall, it’s unlikely any teacher salaries will have to be cut or any teachers will have to be laid off.

In fact, teachers will get their annual experience-based raise this year, which Democrats had to freeze during the last recession, plus a $350 bonus. Unless, of course, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes it.

The unfortunate reality is that teachers could have had triple that raise if Democrats hadn’t opposed it last year, when the state had a $1 billion surplus.

Gov. Cooper vetoed a no-strings-attached 3.9% raise – money in hand! – and then rejected a Republican offer of a 4.9% raise plus a $1,000 bonus as part of larger budget negotiations.

But, as they say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Politically-minded operators will keep spinning half-truths to convince you of a reality that simply doesn’t exist.

This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 8:32 AM.