Teachers in North Carolina need a voice – and we’ll give it to them.
When the state started the school year with more than 3,500 teacher vacancies,1 when North Carolina must play catch-up with Alabama on starting teacher pay,2 when enrollment in the state’s colleges of education has fallen 50%,3 when the portion of the state’s economic production that’s dedicated to K-12 public schools ranks 49th in the nation,4 something’s not right.
We repeat: Something’s not right.
Welcome to Teachers Talk, a periodic series where we ask teachers across the state to submit videos they record themselves.
We’ll hear why they went into teaching – and/or why they left. We’ll hear how they get by on their meager pay. If they have a second job, we’ll hear them describe why – and what that job is.
And we’ll hear them describe what they do in classrooms across the state with North Carolina’s most precious resource – our children.
‼️We are currently doing a giveaway! Submit your own video for our Teachers Talk series by 02/14/2025 and have your name entered in a drawing to win two tickets to the Duke vs. UNC basketball game on 03/08/2025.‼️
To submit your own video for Teachers Talk, please include your name, the school and school system where you teach, how long you’ve taught, and why you went into teaching – or why you left. Tell us about what makes your job worth it, the biggest challenge facing teachers today, or whatever you feel compelled to share. Please limit your remarks to 2 minutes.
And THANK YOU. We want to hear – and share – your stories!
(February 5, 2025) – Our latest installment of Teachers Talk features Erin Walsh, a math teacher at Onslow Early College High School.
Walsh explains how she retired from teaching after 29 years and returned as a part-time teacher to make more money. (She is a math teacher, after all!)
“Sadly, our pay stops increasing dramatically after year 15 in North Carolina,” she says “That is the reason a lot of teachers leave the profession and do not stick around for the retirement plan.”
RALEIGH (April 10, 2024) – Sara Scanlon feels “steadily increasing pressure” to increase graduation rates among her students – whether they’ve mastered the material or not.
In our latest installment of Teachers Talk, Scanlon – a high-school math teacher in Wake County in her 12th year of teaching – talks about the frustrations that creates for students, parents and teachers.
CONCORD (April 4, 2024) – To Natalia Mejia, teachers should be treated like the professionals they are.
In the latest installment of our Teachers Talk series, the ESL teacher at C.C. Griffin STEM Magnet Middle School and NCCAT Empower NC Beginning Teacher of the Year notes how North Carolina ranked 34th in average teacher pay and 46th in beginning teacher pay last year.
Other educated professionals don’t have to work a second job, she says.
KERNERSVILLE (March 6, 2024) – Stephanie Wallace is one masterful teacher. Wallace, who teaches English and Teacher Cadets at East Forsyth High School, has an amazing 180 former students who are teaching in classrooms across North Carolina, and several in other states.
And Tiffani Cash, one very spirited recent elementary-education graduate of Winston-Salem State University, shares her enthusiasm for her students and those magical “Aha!” moments:
Frankie Santoro, a language-arts teacher at Clemmons Middle School in Forsyth County, shares the importance of better pay for teachers, but especially for teachers who make the extra effort to earn master’s degrees:
(February 1, 2024) – In our first installment, Rachel Prather Chen, now in her 14th year teaching in Wake Forest, shares how her take-home pay dropped in her third year of teaching, the size of her classes, the babysitting jobs she’s taken on and why it’s important – to the children – to pay bus drivers right:
Disclosure: Rachel Prather Chen is the daughter of Public Ed Works board member King Prather.
1 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article278765479.html.
2 https://www.al.com/educationlab/2022/04/alabama-gov-kay-ivey-approves-largest-education-budget-in-state-history-historic-teacher-raises.html; https://ncnewsline.com/briefs/alabama-is-schooling-north-carolina-on-teacher-pay/.
3 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article278765479.html;
4 https://edlawcenter.org/research/making-the-grade-2023/.