Yes, teachers deserve more pay

North Carolina says it values public education. Yet actions say the state expects our teachers to compete nationally while paying them at bargain wages.

The raw numbers tell us that state leaders expect educators to do more with less.

Lagging pay, particularly for experienced teachers, is driving talented educators out of Burke County and the state. Tennessee is our only border neighbor with lower salaries. Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia all ranked higher than North Carolina. Communities that struggle to recruit and retain strong teachers will also struggle to attract quality employers. The snowball effect into all facets of life is real.

And we aren’t just losing the pay battle in the region.

More than two-thirds of the U.S. pay their teachers better than North Carolina. In the report recently released by the National Education Association, this beautiful state ranked 43rd in average teacher pay and 38th in starting teacher pay for 2024-25. The same is true for per-student spending, a category where we also flounder, ranking 39th nationally.

(For the curious: Mississippi ranked last in average teacher pay; Montana’s starting teacher pay was the lowest; and Idaho was at the bottom in per-student spending.)

The immediate future isn’t looking brighter. The NEA’s projections for 2025-26 show the Tarheel State dropping three more spots to 46th in average teacher pay.

Identifying the problem is the easy part. The solutions will be harder to come by.

The North Carolina General Assembly sets the base pay — currently $41,000 — for teachers. For anything to change in that base pay, elected leaders must first pass an updated budget. Due to legislative inaction, North Carolina is still operating under a 2024 budget.

That’s unacceptable.

While the state sets the floor for teacher salaries, local districts can add supplements. The amount of those supplements varies greatly from district to district, with much of the support tied to each county’s tax base.

That is the heart of the problem.

Poorer and rural counties often tax themselves hard and still fall behind wealthier counties. The Public School Forum’s 2024 Local School Finance Study found that the 10 highest-spending counties spent more than four times more per child than the lowest-spending counties, despite poorer counties taxing themselves at higher rates.

Burke County’s economic profile shows the challenge: per capita income is $47,560 (74th out of 100 counties) compared with $61,839 statewide, and adjusted taxable property base per capita is $90,203 compared with $155,950 statewide.

We applaud the Burke County commissioners and the Burke County Board of Education members for forging a more collaborative relationship after years of tension. The result is that the county has made great strides in the last three years in increasing financial support for the school district.

From 2023 to 2024, the commissioners improved our average teacher supplements to push Burke County Public Schools up from 82nd to 63rd, out of 115 school districts. Total county funding for public education is nearly one-quarter of its budget today.

So, does Burke lag behind better-funded districts? In some areas, yes. In others, Burke is outperforming expectations. But that should not be used as an excuse to underfund schools. It should be treated as proof that good educators can do a lot with too little — and that students would benefit if they were given more.

The connection between funding and outcomes is not a simple one-to-one equation. We know that money does not teach a child to read or write. But money does buy smaller classes, educational resources, safe school buildings, and competitive salaries for those charged with helping our children succeed.

Meanwhile, Opportunity Scholarships are pulling public dollars into private schools. The state’s Office of State Budget and Management estimated that if the voucher waitlist were fully funded, Burke County could lose 47 students and $347,285 in state public school funding.

Parents understandably want options for their children. But rural districts with shrinking enrollment, like Burke County, have less capacity to absorb funding losses.

North Carolina’s public schools serve everyone. They do not get to choose only the easiest students to teach. They take the child with disabilities, the child without internet, the child who needs breakfast, the child whose family is in crisis.

If we believe in Burke County’s future, we must fund the classrooms where that future is being built. Raise teacher pay. Close the local funding gap. Protect rural districts from voucher-driven erosion.

Our message to Raleigh: Give public schools the resources they need. Burke’s children deserve no less.