Tag: Teacher Pay

Investing in education is the right move for legislature- EdNC- Allen E. Gant Jr.

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_hidrop] Education transformation in North Carolina depends on our ability to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers and school leaders. That’s why we commend our elected leadership for their bold commitments to raise teacher pay. The National Education Association reports that North Carolina has raised teacher salaries faster than any other state over the last two years. More importantly, legislative leadership has made it a top priority to significantly boost not just starting pay, but pay for all early career teachers. Business leaders know that talent is the key to the success of any organization. That’s why we must continue investing in a teacher pay plan that enables every teacher to earn more, earlier in their career and compensates experienced teachers who expand their career into classroom leadership and/or hard-to-staff schools and subjects. BEST NC members believe North Carolina can have the best education system in the nation. We start by looking at the reality of today’s teaching profession. The truth is that schools are competing with other professions to retain new, talented teachers. Even though starting teacher pay was raised significantly over the last two years, teachers quickly fall behind their college graduate peers with the slow progression of our pay schedule. That is one big reason turnover is so high among younger teachers in North Carolina. The other hard reality is that we don’t compensate teachers as we do other highly-skilled professions. In most other professions, earnings potential keeps up with early career growth and includes additional opportunities for specialized skills or achievement. Currently, North Carolina teachers can’t reach top earnings until they are nearly 50 years old. No other high-skilled profession follows such a slow curve. To be clear – teaching is a highly skilled profession, requiring teachers to make complex, real time decisions to ensure students are engaged and learning. Plus, the demands of the economy require teachers to meet higher expectations and provide personalized learning for all students. We must ensure that our classroom teachers have the respect and compensation commensurate with this demanding job. Giving higher raises to early-career teachers will help recruit top talent to the profession, reduce turnover, and enable them to earn more, faster. We can continue building on these gains by compensating experienced teachers for taking on leadership roles, teaching in hard to fill subject areas or taking positions in hard to staff schools. We commend both the Governor and House leadership for prioritizing pay increases for teachers and principals in their budget proposals. The Senate pay plan that was previewed this week appears to build on those proposals, offering a multi-year commitment to a visionary plan for paying teachers commensurate with the importance and skill of their profession. About the Author: Allen E. Gant, Jr., is the chairman and CEO of Glen Raven, Inc. and a member of BEST NC. Click here to view Allen E. Gant Jr.- Investing in education PDF [/vc_hidrop][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Proposed state Senate budget ups the ante on teacher pay

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_hidrop] Posted May 25, 2016 at4:59PMUpdated May 25, 2016 at 5:03 PM By the Associated Press   RALEIGH — North Carolina Senate Republicans on Wednesday previewed their plan to pay teachers more than what Gov. Pat McCrory and House members have offered, but didn’t provide many details about how they would pay for it. Senate leader Phil Berger said the chamber is committed to raising average teacher pay— including local supplements — by several thousand dollars to more than $54,200 by the 2017-18 school year. In a frst step, the Senate’s recommended budget adjustments, to be unveiled next week, would raise the state average to slightly more than $51,000 this fall, he said. North Carolina is currently ranked 41st in the nation for teacher pay, with an estimated average salary for the current school year of $47,985, according to the National Education Association. The Senate plan, if implemented, would move North Carolina up to the middle among the states and District of Columbia, Berger said. The effort “will make North Carolina the Southeast’s leader in teacher pay and encourage the best and the brightest in the teaching profession to make a long-term commitment to our students and to our state,” Berger, R-Rockingham, said at a Legislative Building news conference. McCrory’s budget proposes raising the state’s share of teacher pay on average by 5 percent this fall, to slightly more than $50,000. The House budget, approved last week, would raise teacher salaries by 4.1 percent, not quite reaching a $50,000 average, although House Republicans said they would provide more raises next year. One-time bonuses also are included in proposals by McCrory and the House. The two chambers ultimately will work out a fnal agreement for the coming year to present to McCrory. Action on 2017-18 salaries wouldn’t occur until the next session and the next two-year budget. Berger said the Senate’s entire plan would cost $538 million over two years and not require tax increases, relying instead on a stronger economy and healthy state revenues to pay for it. Pressed for what other spending changes, if any, would be needed to carry it out, he responded: “Once you see the full budget, you’ll be able to see the details about it.” Paying for raises this year would appear trickier given that House and Senate leaders have agreed to spend no more than $22.2 billion in the new fscal year starting July 1. Meanwhile, a Senate plan to increase standard income tax deductions, also expected in the budget bill, would reduce revenues by $145 million next fscal year, compared to a reduction of $25 million in the House budget, which phases in the tax break. Under the Senate’s plan, for example, base pay for teachers with 10 years of experience would increase 6.3 percent to $42,500 this fall and to $45,000 the following year, according to a Senate Republican website referred to by Berger. The plan also envisions teachers reaching the current $50,000 maximum on the state-only teacher salary scale at 15 years of experience, compared to the current 25. “The Senate’s proposal for teachers to earn more money, faster will help recruit top talent to the profession, reduce turnover and dramatically increase career earnings,” said Brenda Berg, who runs BEST NC, a business-oriented public education advocacy group. The North Carolina Association of Educators, the state’s largest teacher lobbying group and a critic of Republican legislators, was more suspicious about a plan lacking many details. “Now, because it’s an election year, Senate leaders are trying to play catch up from the destructive swath they created for our public schools,” NCAE President Rodney Ellis said in a release. Teachers have received raises two years in a row, including a signifcant 7 percent average increase for the 2014-15 school year. But the most experienced teachers did not get permanent raises this year. Click to view Proposed state Senate budget ups the ante on teacher pay PDF [/vc_hidrop][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Promising signs on teacher pay at legislature- The Charlotte Observer- Allen E. Gant Jr.

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_hidrop] BY ALAN E. GANT JR. Gant Photo by – Steve Exum Special to the Observer Education transformation in North Carolina depends on our ability to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers and school leaders. That’s why we commend our elected leadership for their bold commitments to raise teacher pay. The National Education Association reports that North Carolina has raised teacher salaries faster than any other state over the last two years. More importantly, legislative leadership has made it a top priority to significantly boost not just starting pay, but pay for all early career teachers. Business leaders know that talent is the key to the success of any organization. That’s why we must continue investing in a teacher pay plan that enables every teacher to earn more earlier in their career and compensates experienced teachers who expand their career into classroom leadership and/or hard-to-staff schools and subjects. BEST NC members believe North Carolina can have the best education system in the nation. We start by looking at the reality of today’s teaching profession. The truth is that schools are competing with other professions to retain new, talented teachers. Even though starting teacher pay was raised significantly over the past two years, teachers quickly fall behind their college graduate peers with the slow progression of our pay schedule. That is one big reason turnover is so high among younger teachers in North Carolina. The other hard reality is that we don’t compensate teachers as we do other highly skilled professions. In most other professions, earnings potential keeps up with early career growth and includes additional opportunities for specialized skills or achievement. Currently, North Carolina teachers can’t reach top earnings until they are nearly 50 years old. No other high-skilled profession follows such a slow curve. To be clear – teaching is a highly skilled profession, requiring teachers to make complex, real-time decisions to ensure students are engaged and learning. Plus, the demands of the economy require teachers to meet higher expectations and provide personalized learning for all students. We must ensure that our classroom teachers have the respect and compensation commensurate with this demandingjob. Giving higher raises to early-career teachers   will help recruit top talent to the profession, reduce turnover, and enable them to earn more, faster. We can continue building on these gains by compensating experienced teachers for  taking on leadership roles, teaching in hard-to- fill subject areas or taking positions in hard-to- staffschools. We commend both the governor and House leadership for prioritizing pay increases for teachers and principals in their budget proposals. The Senate pay plan that was previewed Wednesday appears to build on those proposals, offering a multi-year commitment to a visionary plan for paying teachers commensurate with the importance and skill of their profession. Gant is chairman and CEO of Glen Raven, Inc. and a member of BEST NC. Click here to view Allen E. Gant Jr. -Investing in education PDF [/vc_hidrop][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Don’t forget about principals when handing out raises- Walter McDowell

It’s time for North Carolina to treat principals with the respect and compensation they deserve. As the legislative session resumes next week, business leaders across North Carolina will be looking for a strong focus on what we know is key to the success of any organization – the best possible talent. For BEST NC members who believe that North Carolina can have the best education system in the nation, this means a strong focus on North Carolina’s educators.

Legislatures get mixed bag of teacher pay proposals

  NEWS: CJ EXCLUSIVES Legislators Get Mixed Bag of Teacher PayProposals Atkinson’s call for 10-percent hike draws cool reception Legislators Get Mixed Bag of Teacher Pay Proposals – Carolina Journal From left, Best NC’s Brenda Berg, the John Locke Foundation’s Terry Stoops, and state Superintendent June Atkinson prepare to discuss teacher compensation on Jan. 27 before a House committee. (CJ Photo by Barry Smith)  Barry Smith in CJExclusives February 1, 2016 4:30PM Before a state House committee last Wednesday, state Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson recommended that all public school teachers in North Carolina get a 10 percent boost in their pay as part of a four-part plan to increase teacher compensation. Several members of the House Select Committee on Education Strategy and Practices were skeptical of the value of across-the-board raises along with their cost. In a presentation later that day, Terry Stoops, director of research and education studies at the John Locke Foundation, said universal pay raises send the wrong signals to the best and worst classroom teachers. And in remarks the following day to the same panel, House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, rejected the idea of a 10-percent raise. Atkinson, who is running for re-election, likened the tiers of compensation to a four-layered wedding cake. The base level of the cake must be competitive enough to be attractive, Atkinson said. “I would want North Carolina to be extremely bold and to look toward a 10 percent increase for all of our teachers,” Atkinson said. The cost for providing all teachers 10 percent raises would be   around $540 million.  Rep. Jonathan Jordan, R-Ashe, asked Atkinson if spending the additional money would guarantee an end to the state’s teacher compensation problems. Atkinson said that she wanted to provide the committee with cost figures. “I recognize that it is a big item,” Atkinson said. “As state   superintendent you have in statute that it is my responsibility to let the needs of our schools be known. If I were in your shoes, I would be worrying about that money, too.” Also presenting to the committee Wednesday were Stoops, Trip Stallings, director of policy research at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at N.C. State University, and Brenda Berg, president and CEO at Best NC. Stoops said he didn’t like across-the-board raises because they encourage bad teachers to remain on the job. “When you raise salaries across the board, both your best teachers and your worst teachers receive that salary, you are incentivizing the bad teachers to stay in the profession because they’re assuming that the across-the-board pay increase is what they will keep receiving, regardless of how they are performing,” Stoops said. “This creates a situation where we are essentially allowing those poor teachers to stay in the profession, and not really rewarding our most effective teachers.” Stoops said having a performance-based pay or differentiated pay would allow the best teachers to receive the compensation they   deserve. Atkinson said the second layer of compensation requires identifying a certain percentage of teachers to be designated as teacher leaders, who would get additional pay for their roles. These teachers could be instructional coaches, peer evaluators, or grade level coordinators, among other things, she said. A third layer would boost compensation to attract teachers to low performing schools. The fourth layer would provide bonuses for teachers at schools that exceed anticipated growth, Atkinson said. Stallings said that differential pay is complex and cautioned against having a one-size-fits all approach to such salary boosts. He said that there is “very little evidence” of an impact on student performance when the focus is on pay-for-performance only. “What works in Charlotte is probably not going to work in Bertie County,” Stallings said. Stoops said that the purpose for having differential pay is teacher retention. He also said that teachers leave their job for various reasons, not just pay. “It’s not just compensation,” Stoops said. “It’s personal circumstances. They don’t like their principal. They think the school district is too big. The working conditions are terrible. They don’t have the books that they need, or the labor market is somehow enticing them to move on to another field.” Berg, from BEST NC, a nonprofit coalition of business leaders promoting improvements in public schools, said there a national crisis is brewing because millennials don’t want to go into the teaching   profession. “Compensation is a piece of the puzzle,” Berg said. But she suggested that there is a need to treat teachers more like professionals. Berg offered some suggestions, such as providing scholarships or repaying student loans to teachers who get their degrees in North Carolina and agree to work hereafterward. “We need to elevate our respect for teachers,” Berg said.  Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, also suggested that the state no longer consider individual teachers’ salaries public records. “I think that’s the main reason that so many of they say they don’t want a differentiated performance pay because of envy and jealousy,” Stam said. “They don’t want their friend down the hall to know that they’re   making $2,000 more than they are.” Even though Moore rejected Atkinson’s proposal for a 10-percent raise, Stoops said he expected this year’s short session of the General Assembly to enact a smaller across-the-board pay increase. “The amount of that pay raise will depend on the revenue outlook and the pressures from other budgetary areas,” Stoops said. “I would say 5 percent would be the  ceiling.”  categories: Education (PreK-12), K-12 Education, Spending & Taxes tags: ncga, teacher pay                                                 Click here to view the Legislators Get Mixed Bag of Teacher Pay Proposals PDF