RALEIGH (March 6, 2025) – North Carolina treats its public-school teachers horribly. But there might be a glimmer of hope.
The state has languished toward the bottom of national rankings on teacher pay for the past 10 years. North Carolina dropped to 38th place last year in average teacher pay – almost $13,000 below the national average – and 42nd in starting teacher pay.1
The state ranks 49th in the percentage of its economy it devotes to K-12 public schools.2 We have the capacity to do more for our public schools and our children. We just don’t.
Because North Carolina voters don’t hold our state legislators accountable.
More than 10,000 teachers left the state’s classrooms in 2023.3 Yet the General Assembly voted last year to dump $6.5 billion in taxpayer dollars into vouchers for private schools over the next decade with little accountability attached.4
BUT THERE WAS A SIGN last week that at least some North Carolina Republicans finally recognize they need to do more to attract and retain public-school teachers.
A bipartisan bill with 57 sponsors and the notable co-sponsorship of Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, a senior chair of the NC House Appropriations Committee, would put $1.6 billion into increased pay for North Carolina teachers. The bill would:
•Raise teacher pay by $9,000 to $12,000 a year.
•Raise starting teacher pay to $50,000, and $68,230 for teachers with 25 or more years of experience.5
•And restore extra pay for teachers with master’s degrees, which was eliminated by state legislators in 2013.6
TEACHER PAY is far more likely to be addressed in the state budget than in an individual bill – that’s the meat of the legislative process.
House Bill 192 doesn’t say where the money would come from to grant such raises.
A consensus revenue forecast between the governor’s budget office and the legislature’s Fiscal Research Division projects that the state will have a $544 million surplus this year, but a 2.4% revenue decline by 2026-27, due to planned reductions in personal and corporate income tax rates. So where will the state find the money to treat teachers the way they should be?
This is the first inning in a very long budget game fraught with uncertainties about continued federal support for education and Medicaid, in particular.
But the bill is an acknowledgment from at least some Republicans that North Carolina needs to attract and keep public school teachers.
The state House has pushed for larger raises for teachers and other state employees in recent years moreso than the intransigent state Senate.
If we could see similar recognition in the Senate, we’d feel more assured that North Carolina finally recognizes it must do more to recruit and retain the teachers who are critical to training the workforce in a state that likes to think it’s one of the top states for business.
Over and over and over again, state Senate leader Phil Berger and his caucus have rejected larger raises for K-12 public school teachers.
Will the Senate step up? Or do state senators feel too insulated in their gerrymandered districts to care about our children and our future workforce?
[5] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article301495514.html.
[6] https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/House/PDF/H192v0.pdf.
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