Educators encourage lawmakers, governor to invest in teachers
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- As Gov. Pat McCrory prepared to deliver his State of the State address Wednesday, North Carolina educators have a message to lawmakers: invest more in our teachers.
UNC law student Brian Gwyn found himself back in a classroom after working nearly a decade in public education.
"I felt like I could make a better contribution going the law and policy route because I think we need more voices, and we need more people speaking out for public education in North Carolina," said Gwyn.
The former teacher and assistant principal for Wake County Schools said one of the biggest problems is teacher pay.
"I saw a lot of teachers leaving the classroom for other positions either in other states that could pay them more, or for other jobs that would pay them more," he said.
From 2013-2014, more than 13,000 North Carolina teachers left their local school districts for a number of reasons, according to N.C. Dept. of Public Instruction.
A report last fall by personal finance website Wallethub.com ranked the state dead last in the nation for teacher salaries.
Chris Dwight never felt the pinch when he was an educator, but many of his colleagues did.
"It was a problem to the extent that it limited the pool of qualified teachers coming into the system," he said.
Law Professor Deborah Gerhardt's classroom is full of former educators. She saw the effect in her own son's classroom when his math teacher left North Carolina for better pay elsewhere.
"It was so hard for the school to find a replacement. He had no math teacher for a couple of months, and in high school that's a pretty big deal," said Gerhardt.
Teacher pay remains a hot topic as North Carolina legislators try to figure out how they will continue to pay for the raises recently approved for new teachers who now start out making $35,000.
"I would like to see him [Gov. McCrory] giving us a plan to give them a meaningful raise so we can keep top talent in North Carolina classrooms," said Gerhardt about McCrory's State of the State address.
