Is $35,000 good money for first year teachers?
That’s the question State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson inadvertently set off earlier this week with his comment that a $35,000 starting salary was “good money” for young teachers.
That comment — along with Johnson’s presence at a school choice celebration — was enough for Mark Jewell, president of the local NEA affiliate, the North Carolina Association of Educators, to not invite Johnson to the NCAE convention later this spring. It was the first time in 48 years NCAE has failed to extend an invitation to a sitting State Superintendent.
A spokesman for Johnson’s office later walked back his comments to say that $35,000 was above the median income in numerous counties (a true statement). Nevertheless, the damage was done.
NCAE’s hyperventilating obscures some simple and important facts: $35,000 is not the starting salary for most teachers in North Carolina. All but six LEAs in the state offer a salary supplement to teachers to boost teacher pay. Teacher salary supplements range from a low of $200 in Allegheny County to $8,485 in Wake County. In 2017, the average salary supplement for teachers across North Carolina was $4,194.
So, is $35,000 good money? The real question should be : Is $39,194 good money?
Yes, there is still much to be done to improve teacher pay in North Carolina.Boosting starting teacher pay to $35,000, providing average teacher pay raises of 7, 2.1, 4.7 and 3 percent over the last four years is a good start. As is providing nearly 9,000 elementary and middle school teachers with merit bonuses of up to $9,700 for improvements in student achievement scores.
It’s progress, but for some, it’s never enough.
$35K is ok for a single person entering the profession if they have no student debt. If you have children and a family support, $35K becomes a scrape by wage. Add a serious Health issue and bankruptcy will ensue (the only Western country with that problem).
What Bob omits is the fact that many new Teachers are not necessarily ‘young people.’ Typical for Bob to omit many facts.
And of course, ‘there is still much to be done’ and no will to do it. Politically, all Bob has to do is remind us of the failure of the other party to excuse the failure of his own.
Today, 25-30 year experienced teachers make less than a 25-30 year teacher made in 2008. Take inflation into consideration, the purchasing power of a 2018 25-30 year teacher is $10,000 less than the teacher in 2008.
Lets have a real conversation about those “achievement scores” bonuses and what they doing to education in NC.
Bob Luebke is in the minor leagues when it comes to understanding teacher salaries, supplements, and testing in NC.
And Civitas spends $2 million a year to publish this stuff?
Civitas = Public School Demonizers!
To Gary Zeller….I’m not sure where you got your inflation rate numbers for the period of 2008-2017 but the CPI shows an inflation rate of 13.69% for that period. For your 25-30 tear teacher to be making an inflation adjusted $10,000 less they would have had to be making some $85,000 in 2008.
I agree that teachers and state employees pay is lower than would be like but the period of time you mention also saw one of the worst budget shortfalls in NC history.
George – The salary increases listed in the article are average teacher pay increases by year. The data was provided by the Department of Public Instruction web site. They are facts. Your choosing to ignore them, says more about you than anything you say. Other facts: Monthly Pay for teachers with 25 years experience in 2008 $4779/mo. Monthly pay for teachers with 25 years: $5,130. That does not include local supplements or differential, which I believe your figures don’t include. Teacher raises have been concentrated on younger and middle–aged teachers because that’s where the major problems are. You may not like it, but those are facts. You say the purchasing power of teachers has declined since 2008. Welcome to the real world, George. You can say the same about many occupations. The post was about the progress made on teacher pay over the last several year. Your comments fixate on teacher pay for those with 25 years or more of experience — a small sliver of the teacher population — and a population not mentioned in my post. People who read these pages have long wondered how a teacher at Northside Middle School in Ashe County would have the time to comment on our blogs day after day, during school time and on school computers. George how do you do it? My guess is school administrators and parents would also like to know.
Nice to see Bob do what NC Civitas is good at. Go after those who disagree with their CONservative bent with personal attacks.
Then they deny they do it. How morally and intellectually bankrupt these folks are.
A few facts conveniently forgotten or ignored.
1. The longevity supplement taken away
2. Local supplements have always existed – the only way to objectively look at the data is to examine base salaries
3. The “real world” is not what we should be striving to change
This is not the first time the “right” has threatened me. There are many examples, throughout history, where people have tried to silence those they disagree with – historians straighten the record.
Civitas needs to be a bit more in tune with school hours and schedules. Also, an email address is not a computer.
Wonder on!
2008 and 2016 comparisons
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12V8vPd-ufzwAh2OSWsHJgJ-voAnit1L73BGSqduNBmQ/edit?usp=sharing
Whatever George makes,he is overpaid.
America Spends a Lot of Money Per Student
The U.S. ranks fifth in spending per student. Only Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland spend more per student. To put this in context: the Slovak Republic, which scores similarly to the U.S., spends $53,000 per student. The U.S. spends $115,000. The PISA report notes that, among OECD countries, “higher expenditure on education is not highly predictive of better mathematics scores in PISA.”
The NCCivitas budget has doubled since 2008 … I guess they need the increase to actively campaign to suppress an increase for state employees.
George – You must get tired from being so angry all the time.
George is a drive by troll.Posts something that is just trying to trash Civitas or conservatives.Then when you post proof that he is clueless he goes on the the next incoherent post and never posts any facts,just some rambling rant against common sense.