Natalie Beyer, a volunteer board member for the liberal advocacy group Public Schools First NC, is disheartened by the Senate education budget.
Commenting in the News and Observer, Beyer said,“It’s becoming more and more challenging to retain experienced teachers. NCAE reported it takes 15 years for a teacher in North Carolina to finally make $40,000. We can choose to invest in people, and our teaching professionals deserve our investment.”
Natalie should blame NCAE for her sour mood, because the state’s largest teacher organization is reporting isn’t the whole story. First let’s say it’s technically true that under the current salary schedule – if a teacher received no salary supplement or received no additional pay for having an advanced degree or national certification — it would take 15 years to earn $40,000 in salary. However, what NCAE is leaving out is that many teachers receive a local salary supplement. In 2010-11 (the latest year available), the average local salary supplement was about $3,500. According to the data nearly all counties had teachers receiving some form of local supplement.
In addition, teachers also supplement their income by acquiring a masters degree or doctorate. When teachers earn National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification, they earn an automatic 12 percent boost in salary. North Carolina has approximately 19,800 NBPTS teachers, more than any other state. Finally, teachers also receive an additional salary supplement if they have an advanced degree (masters or doctorate) and receive NBPTS certification.
All told, the path teachers must take to earn $40,000 is in reality much shorter than NCAE claims. And that’s the rest of the story.
You should tell the whole story as well. Getting a graduate degree is not an easy or inexpensive proposition.
Also, the Senate budget takes away extra pay for teachers who earn a graduate degree.
Answer me this…do teachers in NC make a fair salary?
I agree with Paul.
1) This whole thing ASSUMES teachers are getting raises according to the state pay scale. I am a school administrator and my wife is a teacher. We both started teaching the year the salaries were frozen. Since then, my wife as received one raise. It amounted to approximately $300. Her stipend brings her total pay up to a grand total of $33,000.
2) She was going to start a master’s degree this year, but since she won’t be finished by 2014, that’s not really going to help her salary. However, even if she did, it would take a while to recoup those funds. The masters adds 10%, which would increase her monthly salary by $330 dollars (10 months). Based on that, it would take her roughly 3-4 years to start making money due to her having that graduate degree. However, this number is not really accurate either because we can’t forget about the interest that has to be repaid on the loans she would have to take out.
3) It’s pretty pathetic that my Conservative wife is contemplating voting Democrat for state elections from this point forward just so that she may have some people that are more willing to give her a raise.
4) Since this post was so dead-set on talking about how long it would actually take her to earn $40,000, let me do some real math for you. Her pay is $33,000. She will likely attempt her NBC this year. IF she gets it, she will make $36,960.
Based on her current raises since she began teaching, she will earn an increase of around $300 every five years. So, based on current numbers, she will likely earn $37,260 five years from now ($33,300 x 12% + $33,300). At that point, she will have been a teacher for 10 years.
Since the math is so interesting and you seem so dead-set on figuring out how long it would actually take a teacher to make $40,000, here it is (based on a 1.5% raise every five years) would take just over 30 years. Now, before you say that is preposterous, keep in mind that these are real numbers. She is not a coach, she will not receive an increase for a master’s degree, she will have NBC pay, and she currently works in one of the larger districts in the state.
So, maybe by the time she is ready to retire will she make $40,000 per year. Oh, wait…despite the fact that she will have taught for 30 years, the state will say she is too young to retire with a full pension. Based on my currently calculations, she will retire after 40 years and making approximately $42,000.
What a positive outlook.
Please, respond.
I have 14 years experience in NC and I make 39,140.00. I receive no supplement. I also find it misleading that you do not mention the pending legislation that would take away additional pay for advanced degrees. Now who did you say was lying?
I wanted to thank you for this wonderful read!! I absolutely enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve got you saved as a favorite to look at new things you post…
Yiyi finally found the car keys, Xu Meng first car go first to a package onto the paper desperately pumping blood to wipe his face collapse, rub a few mouthfuls vomit, even if he can wipe his face with blood, but that share a deep smell of blood, but can not go anywhere. So he continued to vomit it, vomit vomit forward to the habit. http://www.optimista.co.jp/blog/2013/03/post-129.html#comments
If you want the FACTS about this and many other issues pertaining to education in NC, just ask a teacher, ANY teacher. What you will hear from the teachers is that the legislature of NC is taking away almost any real incentive to teach in this state. They will tell you it is hard to raise a family on a NC teacher salary, and they will tell you they are frustrated and fed up. This article is actually pretty ridiculous and insulting.