North Carolina educators rally for pay raises
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- As lawmakers returned to Raleigh Wednesday, the N.C. Association of Educators held a "day of action" to push their case for pay raises and rally against education cuts.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, NCAE President Rodney Ellis addressed a crowd of educators and their supporters wearing t-shirts with the slogan "We Heart Public Education."
"We are headed for the bottom. That is not who we are. That is not the North Carolina that we know and love. NCAE believes our students deserve better, our parents deserve better, educators deserve better, and North Carolina can do better," said Ellis. "It is time for our legislators to aim higher."
Fourth grade teacher, Deborah Abel traveled all the way from New Hanover County to voice her concerns.
"My kids have been doing their math work with colored pencils. I put out a plea to another school. [They] sent me a bag of pencils. It's that bad in the classroom. I want to make sure that education is funded. It's not just about teacher pay raises," said Abel.
The state's largest teacher advocacy group laid out their legislative agenda, including a request to increase teacher salaries and per-pupil funding to the national average.
"We are in the career that is most regarded, but few actually want to reward us." said 2014 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, James Ford. "We deserve to be fairly compensated, not fabulously wealthy but not working for peanuts either."
They're also demanding a repeal of the new teacher tenure law that trades tenure for contracts and gives pay raises to the top 25-percent of teachers.
In opposition, the NCAE delivered thousands of petitions and dozens of resolutions from school boards across the state to Rep. Thom Tillis and Sen. Phil Berger as part of the organization's "Decline To Sign" campaign.
Wednesday afternoon, more than a hundred educators marched to the State Capitol to deliver petitions to the governor. They also delivered cookies, each with a message from teachers.
"Dear Governor," read one cookie. "Thank you for helping me to push my child into another field other than education."
Click here to read more of the NCAE's 2014 legislative agenda.
