Wake teachers will get small raises, unless North Carolina legislators take action
Wake County teachers will get raises of $100 or less this school year unless state leaders take action to approve salary increases.
The Wake County school board approved 2019-20 salary schedules on Tuesday that put into effect locally funded pay raises approved earlier this month. Wake teachers will get less than $10 a month from the school district.
The state has not agreed to pay raises yet for this school year for teachers and school support staff. The salaries are just part of a budget fight between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-led General Assembly.
“It’s unfortunate right now that teachers are being held up,” school board chairman Keith Sutton said in an interview. “But we do understand. We support the idea of being able to provide teachers with as much of an increase as we possibly can.”
Legislators have proposed giving average raises over two years of 3.9% to teachers and 2% to support staff.
Cooper vetoed the budget and a separate bill on school employees, calling the raises “paltry” and citing other concerns, such as the budget not including Medicaid expansion. He has asked lawmakers to provide bigger pay raises.
The only state increases teachers have gotten so far are “step increases” — the annual $1,000 increase given to teachers with 15 years or less experience on their license. Teachers with 25 years on their license get a one-time step increase or $2,000.
Wake providing locally funded pay raises
Earlier this month, the Wake school board agreed to use local funds to give raises for all of the district’s employees. The biggest salary increase of 3% is going to support staff, which includes bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, mechanics, maintenance workers, teacher assistants and cafeteria workers.
“The state has ignored these classes of employees for the last several years in their budget discussions,” said school board member Bill Fletcher. “Everything’s been about teachers. I’m not complaining about teachers getting salary increases.
“But they have neglected greatly the people who are the support and without whom we would have a terrible problem operating a quality school district.”
Certified staff, which includes teachers, are getting a 1% raise in the local salary supplement. Some school districts supplement the state’s base salary to teachers.
The increase for Wake teachers is minimal. For instance, teachers with two years on their license, a bachelor’s degree and who are not nationally board certified will get $64 more over the school year. It rises to $100 more a year for teachers with 25 years on their license.
If raises are approved by the state, Wake will revise the salary schedules.
Despite this year’s budget issues, average salaries have increased for North Carolina teachers to $53,975 a year. Critics complain though that they’re less than they were before the recession a decade ago, when adjusted for inflation.
Cooper, who is running for re-election, sent a letter to teachers last week blaming the lack of raises on lawmakers. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is running for governor, sent his own letter to teachers blaming the situation on Cooper’s vetoes.
Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said last week that “the only pathway that exists to provide teachers with a pay raise is for the bipartisan budget to be enacted through a veto override.”
“It is entirely up to Senate Democrats whether we enact a new budget and provide teachers with pay raises or if we continue with the existing budget through 2020,” Berger said in a press release Thursday. “Since the budget initially passed the Senate with a bipartisan supermajority, it is my hope that the same bipartisan supermajority will vote for it again. But, ultimately, it is not up to me or Senate Republicans. It is up to Senate Democrats.”
