A press release put out by House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate Leader Phil Berger provides some details regarding their tentative budget agreement. Below is the text of the release:
Raleigh, N.C. – House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) and Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) held a joint press conference Tuesday to announce details of the $21.25 billion budget agreement reached between Senate and House conferees this past weekend.
The budget will provide public school educators an average seven percent raise – averaging $3,500 per teacher. The $282 million investment will be largest teacher pay raise in state history – moving North Carolina from 46th to 32nd in national teacher pay rankings.
It will also preserve teacher assistant positions, protect classroom funding and continue to give superintendents broad flexibility to tailor classroom spending to their districts’ needs.
“Making positive and historic changes to the status quo isn’t easy – and we commend our Senate and House colleagues for their hard work, patience and perseverance in crafting a plan that provides the largest teacher pay raise in state history without raising taxes,” said Senate Leader Berger and Speaker Tillis. “Investing $282 million in pay raises will make North Carolina competitive nationally and encourage the best and brightest teachers to make a long-term commitment to their profession, our students and our state.”
In addition to the teacher pay raise and preservation of classroom funds, the budget agreement will:
- Reform and replace an archaic 37-step teacher pay system with a six-step schedule and a transparent compensation package;
- Preserve current Medicaid eligibility;
- Provide most state employees a $1,000 pay raise and five bonus vacation days;
- Increase pay for step-eligible Highway Patrol Troopers between five and six percent;
- Maintain funding at current levels for the state’s university system; and
- Fulfill the commitment to extend supplemental pay for teachers with Master’s degrees who have completed at least one course in a graduate program as of August 1, 2013.
The budget will also boost early-career teacher pay by 14 percent over the next two years to $35,000 – making North Carolina a leader in the Southeast and fulfilling a promise made by state leaders in February.
This is big news and, as Joe Biden would say, a big >>>>>>> deal. But notice how the state’s mainstream media is treating this largest teacher pay raise in state history. Buried in the N&O on line edition, not even headlined in the W-S Journal. (Have yet to check other urban papers and TV stations web sites.) But when the budget talks were stalemated between Senate and House versions, it was headline news.
More blatant media hypocrisy!
Media Update: This morning the N&O finally put the budget deal at the top of its online edition. Yesterday, the story made the first page on the online editions of the Charlotte Observer and the Greensboro News and Record, although the Observer treated it like it was a GOP press release. This morning it is still downplayed in the W-S Journal.
I can find no mention of the deal in the Asheville Citizens-Times and the yesterday the budget deal was buried on the WRAL website as the 7th headline under “More” in third position under “Other Stories.”