By Paul Fulton, Don Martin and Doug Shackelford
WINSTON-SALEM (March 12, 2025) – Last week, Public Ed Works published a piece that described a “glimmer of hope” for our public-school teachers. It covered a bill filed by Rep. Erin Pare’, R-Wake, that would invest $1.6 billion in increased pay for North Carolina teachers.
The bill – HB 192 – proposes to raise pay for public-school teachers by $9,000-12,000 a year, with starting pay of $50,000, and to reinstate extra pay for teachers with master’s degrees.
A notable part of the bill is that it is co-sponsored by Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, the senior chair of the state House Appropriations Committee.
While teacher pay is normally addressed in the state budget rather than an individual bill, the House has advocated for better pay for teachers and other state employees for several years. Sadly, the state Senate has not been willing to provide similar support for the public schools the vast majority of North Carolina children attend.
We don’t know where this bill will go, but Lambeth’s support as a co-sponsor is meaningful. He is one of the most important legislators in Raleigh. He is the former president of NC Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, the former Chair of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board, with 18 years of service, and a highly respected member of the House Republican Caucus.
Lambeth encountered a huge difference in starting pay for teachers when he visited South Carolina recently – $47,000 in South Carolina1 vs. $41,000 in North Carolina. NC teachers were, and are, going across the border to get a better-paying job.
Lambeth has been known as “the legislator that listens.” We need the legislature to listen to him now. Hopefully, other Republicans – particularly those in the Senate – will pay attention to this knowledgeable voice of common sense and reason.
Our teacher pipeline is declining – enrollment in teacher preparation programs is down 50%. Our teacher turnover rate is the highest in 20 years. Our starting teacher pay ranks next-to-last in the Southeast. Average pay for NC teachers is $12,985 below the national average and ranks 38th. Our state’s per-student spending also ranks 38th. And the percentage of its economy North Carolina invests in public education ranks 49th.
Is this what we want for North Carolina’s children? Is this who we are – ranking 1st or 2nd in business but near the bottom in education funding?
Our local schools are the infrastructure from which our manpower is readied to sustain our future. This foundation is eroding, and we will pay a price for it.
Diverting hundreds of millions of dollars to vouchers for private schools every year prevents us from providing adequate support for our children in traditional public schools.
It’s fine for the state to give true “opportunity scholarships” to pay private school tuition for parents in need. But we should not be sending taxpayer dollars to millionaires so that their children can go to elite private schools in our largest cities.
Moving taxpayer dollars from local public schools in rural counties to private schools in urban areas is bad for North Carolina. Doing so will hurt most of our 100 counties, which don’t have nearly the number of private schools as our urban counties. Children in rural counties depend almost exclusively on their local public schools.
Eight urban North Carolina counties (8%) have 44% of the state’s private schools. Eleven (11%) counties have no (0%) private schools, and 50 counties (50%) have just 11% of the state’s private schools.
Where are our business community and business leaders in this time of crisis for our local public schools? Unless we support our public schools, North Carolina’s business community will eventually pay a heavy price.
NOW IS THE TIME to do something about this, and the bill sponsored by Reps. Pare’, Lambeth and 55 co-sponsors is a place to start.
Whether it’s a standalone bill or pay adjustments in the state budget, legislators need to act. Thank you, Rep. Pare’, Rep. Lambeth and your co-sponsors, for stepping forward.
TO OUR READERS: If you agree with the provisions in this bill, please contact your legislators in the NC General Assembly.
Paul Fulton is the Chair of Public Ed Works, former president of Sara Lee Corp, former Dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill and an unaffiliated voter. Don Martin is a former superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and the Republican chair of the Forsyth County Commissioners. Doug Shackelford is the former Dean of the Kenan-Flagler Business School and an unaffiliated voter.
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