CHAPEL HILL (February 18, 2026) – Other than his mother, Coach Roy Williams says his biggest heroes are his teachers.1
“I’m very proud of North Carolina and want our state to be the best it can be,” Williams says in the accompanying video.
“We need to aim higher. And I’m not talking about basketball. We are way behind in supporting our public schools.”
North Carolina remains the only state in the nation that hasn’t adopted a budget for 2025-26 – a basic responsibility of the state legislature. And the state lags its neighbors in what it pays its public-school teachers.
“Did you know that NorthCarolina ranks 49th out of 50 states in K-through-12 funding efforts?2 We’re 43 out of 50 states for average teacher pay,” Williams says.
As a result, the state has seen its highest rates of teacher attrition – the number of teachers who leave the profession – in decades.3 And that has worrisome implications for the futures of our children and grandchildren.
“Come on, we can do better,” Williams says. “Let’s pay our teachers.”
1 https://publicedworks.org/2023/06/roy-williams-on-teacher-pay-come-on-man/.
2 Since this video was recorded, new rankings showed that North Carolina now ranks 50th in funding effort – the percentage of state GDP it spends on K-12 public schools: https://edlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Making-the-Grade-2025.pdf.
3 https://www.wral.com/news/education/nc-teacher-turnover-down-but-profession-has-changed-new-data-shows-april-2025/.
Leave a Reply