RALEIGH (November 3, 2022) – As you vote in the coming days, we encourage you to back candidates – particularly candidates for the state legislature – who support public education from preschool to grad school.

Before you go to the polls, here are some numbers to bear in mind:

• 4,400 – The number of vacant teaching positions in North Carolina’s K-12 public schools as they opened this fall.

• 11,000 – The number of vacant teacher and staff positions once bus drivers, cafeteria workers, etc., were included.¹ 

• 49th – North Carolina’s rank among the states for the percentage of its GDP it spends on K-12 public schools.²

• 41st – Rank of NC community-college average faculty pay among the states. Lower than Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi.³ 

• 3.5% – The percentage raise for community-college, state university and other state employees in the 2022-23 state budget.

• 4.2% – Average percentage raise this year for K-12 public school teachers.

• 8.6% – Rate of inflation when the 2022-23 state budget was adopted in July.⁴

• 17% – Percentage by which pay for starting teachers in Alabama exceeds starting pay for NC teachers.⁵

• 34th – North Carolina’s rank in public K-12 average teacher pay in 2020-21.⁶ 

• 46,556 – Increase in number of North Carolina children ages 5-17 from 2010-2019.⁷

• 846 – Number of school buses, at 55 seats per bus, those children would fill.⁸ 

• 53% – Percentage of 4-year-olds eligible for NC Pre-K (33,000 children) who did not have access to the program before the pandemic.⁹

• $30,680 – Median wages of a North Carolina preschool teacher in 2020. 

• 40% – Percentage decline in enrollment from 2010-19 in NC community-college early-childhood education programs.¹⁰

• $2,900 – Reduction in annual state support for each UNC System student since 2006-07, in constant, inflation-adjusted 2021 dollars.¹¹

• $82.5 million – Amount the NC General Assembly agreed to spend this year on NC Promise, which reduces in-state tuition at four state universities to $500 a semester.¹²

• 6 – Number of years the UNC Board of Governors has held tuition flat at UNC System schools.¹³

• $785 million – The amount a judge determined is due the state’s public schools over two years in the 28-year-old Leandro case.¹⁴ 

• $6,524,141,444 – North Carolina’s state budget surplus as it began 2022-23.¹⁵

WE NEED TO MAKE EDUCATION A PRIORITY again in North Carolina. So as you head out to vote, please ask yourself whether the candidates you back support better public education in our state.

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¹ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/09/where-we-stand-underfunded/. 
² https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators/states/compare-indicators/public-school-expenditures-to-state-gdp. 
³ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/10/community-colleges-what-dont-we-get/. 
⁴ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/07/a-pay-cut/. 
⁵ https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2022/07/07/alabama-is-schooling-north-carolina-on-teacher-pay/#sthash.fiq2rbOC.JdAVHt6H.dpbs/. 
⁶ https://www.bestnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Facts-Figures-July-2022.pdf, p. 28.
⁷ https://www.bestnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Facts-Figures-July-2022.pdf, p. 8.
⁸ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/09/k-12-symptoms-of-lousy-pay/. 
⁹ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/09/nc-pre-k-pay-the-folks-who-teach-our-kids/. 
¹⁰ https://www.bestnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Facts-Figures-July-2022.pdf, p. 18; https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/09/early-childhood-do-what-it-takes/. 
¹¹ https://www.bestnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Facts-Figures-July-2022.pdf, p. 51; https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/10/unc-system-disinvesting-in-public-universities/. 
¹² https://www.highereddive.com/news/north-carolina-expands-its-500-tuition-program-will-it-keep-paying-for-it/620355/.
¹³ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/02/unc-board-keep-tuition-flat-a-sixth-year/.
¹⁴ https://hew.aveltsagency.com/2022/09/leandro-time-to-pony-up/.
¹⁵ https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2021/Bills/House/PDF/H103v4.pdf, p. 9.