Teachers in North Carolina need a voice – and we’ll give it to them.
When the state started the school year with more than 3,500 teacher vacancies,1 when North Carolina must play catch-up with Alabama on starting teacher pay,2 when enrollment in the state’s colleges of education has fallen 50%,3 when the portion of the state’s economic production that’s dedicated to K-12 public schools ranks 50th in the nation,4 something’s not right.
We repeat: Something’s not right.
Welcome to Teachers Talk, a periodic series where we ask teachers across the state to submit videos they record themselves.
We’ll hear why they went into teaching – and/or why they left. We’ll hear how they get by on their meager pay. If they have a second job, we’ll hear them describe why – and what that job is.
And we’ll hear them describe what they do in classrooms across the state with North Carolina’s most precious resource – our children.
(February 1, 2024) – In our first installment, Rachel Prather Chen, now in her 14th year teaching in Wake Forest, shares how her take-home pay dropped in her third year of teaching, the size of her classes, the babysitting jobs she’s taken on and why it’s important – to the children – to pay bus drivers right:
Frankie Santoro, a language-arts teacher at Clemmons Middle School in Forsyth County, shares the importance of better pay for teachers, but especially for teachers who make the extra effort to earn master’s degrees:
And Tiffani Cash, one very spirited recent elementary-education graduate of Winston-Salem State University, shares her enthusiasm for her students and those magical “Aha!” moments:
KERNERSVILLE (March 6, 2024) – Stephanie Wallace is one masterful teacher. Wallace, who teaches English and Teacher Cadets at East Forsyth High School, has an amazing 180 former students who are teaching in classrooms across North Carolina, and several in other states.
CONCORD (April 4, 2024) – To Natalia Mejia, teachers should be treated like the professionals they are.
In the latest installment of our Teachers Talk series, the ESL teacher at C.C. Griffin STEM Magnet Middle School and NCCAT Empower NC Beginning Teacher of the Year notes how North Carolina ranked 34th in average teacher pay and 46th in beginning teacher pay last year.
Other educated professionals don’t have to work a second job, she says.
RALEIGH (April 10, 2024) – Sara Scanlon feels “steadily increasing pressure” to increase graduation rates among her students – whether they’ve mastered the material or not.
In our latest installment of Teachers Talk, Scanlon – a high-school math teacher in Wake County in her 12th year of teaching – talks about the frustrations that creates for students, parents and teachers.
To submit your own video for Teachers Talk, please include your name, the school and school system where you teach, how long you’ve taught, and why you went into teaching – or why you left. We know it’s a challenge, but please try to limit your remarks to 2 minutes.
And THANK YOU. We want to hear – and share – your stories!
1 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article278765479.html.
2 https://www.al.com/educationlab/2022/04/alabama-gov-kay-ivey-approves-largest-education-budget-in-state-history-historic-teacher-raises.html; https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/alabama-is-schooling-north-carolina-on-teacher-pay/.
3 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article278765479.html;
4 https://edlawcenter.org/assets/files/pdfs/publications/Making-the-Grade-2022-Report.pdf, pp. 19-20.