Contributing to an informed citizenry, inside and outside the classroom.
One of my favorite phrases from a professional development experience is: “We don’t teach content, we teach kids.” As the years have passed in my teaching career, I’ve grown to value the importance of teachers not just understanding the subject they teach, but understanding that the most significant content is knowing our students. For Teacher... Continue Reading →
Current status: A new fiscal year started July 1 without a new state budget. Step increases for the current salary schedule were adopted at the end of July, however this leaves out the most experienced educators on steps 15-24 and 26+ who each share a salary level. Full budget negotiations between the House & Senate... Continue Reading →
Yesterday the NC House released its proposed teacher salary schedule for 2024-25. Below is a comparison of the following: - last year's schedule - the current budgeted proposal for year 2 of our state's biennial budget - the House's updated proposal for year 2 - what teachers in 2007-08 could have put in their cart... Continue Reading →
According to an NC private school voucher marketer, “All it takes is a fire and health inspection." North Carolina's General Assembly just opened the floodgates on what was already the least regulated private school voucher program in the country. Exposing fraud Public education advocate and school finance expert Kris Nordstrom released research in June 2023... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I watched my students cross the stage to receive their diplomas and listened to speeches recognizing the unique challenges they faced during the pandemic. I couldn't help but think about a less unique but deeper and more lingering crisis faced by previous classes and set to continue unless more NC residents recognize the problem... Continue Reading →
How much have you, or a teacher in your life, sacrificed to NC classrooms in lost wages compared to the purchasing power of the salary schedule in the year they "signed up" for or was once offered in 2007-08 before the Great Recession? Derek Scott and I partnered on a project to help folks quantify... Continue Reading →
Current salary steps are on average 17% behind the purchasing power previously offered by our state. There was no teacher shortage at that time. In fact, when I moved to NC in 2007 it took me over 6 months to find a teaching job in NC despite applying across 5 districts, 2 years of teaching... Continue Reading →
https://videopress.com/v/Op9pKTSJ?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true The NC teacher pipeline has been, and continues to be, broken by elected officials who actively undermine our public schools.They want to replace our public schools with a system of privately managed charters as was done in New Orleans after Katrina. Or worse, throw in the towel on a system of publicly funded schools... Continue Reading →
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