RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper’s recommended budget for 2018-19 heads in the right direction by prioritizing education over tax cuts and offering an average raise of 8% to North Carolina teachers, whose pay ranked 37th in the country in a recent survey.1 The two-year budget state legislators adopted last year included average raises for K-12… READ MORE
Strong support for raising NC teacher pay
HIGH POINT – A poll released last week revealed overwhelming support among Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated North Carolinians for raising public school teacher pay to the national average. So if it’s a political slam dunk, why don’t legislators do it? The High Point University Poll found that 85 percent of North Carolinians agree that public… READ MORE
What motivates someone to teach?
CHARLOTTE – The pay isn’t much. The working conditions can be rough. Yet some feel driven to teach. “Teaching is one of the most important professions right now,” Dean Ellen McIntyre of UNC Charlotte’s Cato College of Education says in the accompanying video. “There’s really hardly a profession as important and as honorable.” State officials… READ MORE
Cultivating young teachers early
CHARLOTTE – In August, UNC Charlotte launched the first of its kind in the nation – a high school and early college for 9th graders who want to become teachers. As North Carolina and other states confront a shrinking pipeline of future teachers, the Charlotte Teacher Early College is an attempt to find a solution…. READ MORE
‘Anybody who can touch the life of a kid’
CHARLOTTE – North Carolina is now the 9th largest state in America – yet it saw a 30% decline in enrollment in the state’s colleges of education from 2010-2015.1 “There’s a teacher pipeline problem pretty much nationally. It’s pretty acute in North Carolina,” Dean Ellen McIntyre of the Cato College of Education at UNC Charlotte… READ MORE
‘She saw something in me’
CHARLOTTE – Most of us had a favorite teacher – one who made a difference in our lives. Dean Ellen McIntyre of the Cato College of Education at UNC Charlotte talks about her favorites in the accompanying video, starting with her third-grade teacher. “She was so fair. I had had a previous teacher who was… READ MORE
A long-term approach on teacher pay, preparation
CHARLOTTE (Oct. 4, 2017) – North Carolina has made efforts in recent years to raise teacher pay from a low of 47th in the nation in 2013-14.1 Yet enrollment in the state’s schools of education is still down. “I’m having fewer and fewer students, even though we have a fantastic program at UNC Charlotte,” Susan… READ MORE
NC’s disinvestment: More tuition, more debt, fewer teachers
RALEIGH – Continuing our look at North Carolina’s disinvestment in public education, a shortfall in state support has meant higher tuition and more debt for university students and fewer teachers for students in our K-12 public schools. Though higher education is a public good that benefits us all – and our state constitution requires legislators… READ MORE
Spellings on K-12 teacher prep: We’re in this together
By Margaret Spellings President, University of North Carolina System I’m nearing the end of my first tour of our state’s public universities, and it has been a thoroughly heartening experience. On every visit, I’ve heard about the remarkable work taking place across North Carolina and seen the pride people take in our campuses. I’ve also heard… READ MORE
VIDEO: “Teachers who … put us on a different path”
GREENSBORO – It’s no secret – enrollment in teacher education has declined markedly across North Carolina’s public universities over the past five years. Yet nearly all of us can name a teacher who made a difference in our lives. “I think we can all go back in our early years and pick out two or… READ MORE