Why Wake County says it’s OK for teachers to wear ‘red for ed’ shirts in school
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wake County allows 'Red for Ed' shirts if not endorsing political candidates.
- Policy revision narrows restriction to political campaign advocacy during class time.
- School board aims to finalize updated employee policy before 2026 elections.
Some Wake County teachers wear “red for ed” shirts — often with the logo of the North Carolina Association of Educators — as they teach their classes.
Wake County school leaders say those red for ed shirts are permitted to be worn during class as long as the clothing isn’t endorsing or opposing specific political campaigns or political candidates. Wake school leaders want to draft a new policy on employee political campaign activities before what could be a contentious mid-term election year in 2026.
“(The head of human resources) has already said he wouldn’t interpret a red t-shirt — support public education generally — as a political message,” said Neal Ramee, an attorney for the Wake school board. “It’s a little too generic for that, I guess.”
School board members discussed whether wearing for red is allowed at last week’s policy committee meeting.
Superintendent Robert Taylor said there’s a difference between a teacher wearing a red for ed shirt with the NCAE logo in school and wearing a red shirt that urges people to vote a specific way. The former would be allowed, the latter would not.
Wearing red for ed to support schools
“Red for ed” started in 2013 in North Carolina when a group of teachers formed Red4EdNC to encourage teachers to wear red on Wednesdays to support public education.
By 2018, it had expanded into a national movement that saw teachers in multiple states hold rallies and/or walk-outs. In 2018 and 2019, North Carolina schools shut down for a day in May when thousands of teachers marched on Raleigh to lobby for better working conditions.
Red4EdNC is no longer active as a group, but the idea of teachers wearing red in schools continues. It’s been embraced by NCAE.
Regulating employee political campaign activities
Red for Ed shirts came up because proposed wording in Wake’s new policy says employees are to “refrain from presenting their personal political views to students in the classroom or when otherwise engaged in the instruction of students.”
School board members said that wording from the N.C. School Boards Association goes further than they intended.
At Ramee’s suggestion, the sentence was changed to say “refrain from endorsing or opposing a political referendum or a particular candidate for elective office.”
School board chair Chris Heagarty said the new wording better reflects the policy’s purpose of regulating employee political campaign activities during work hours.
“We’re not talking about people expressing opinions that might be political on an issue or political on a ideology or political on policy or a belief,” Heagarty said. “We’re talking about specifically what the courts refer to as electoral advocacy, where you are specifically endorsing the election or defeat of specific candidates for office or a ballot issue.”
State statute says public resources can’t be used to endorse candidates or political referendums. School districts can explain what’s in a referendum, such as what construction projects would be funded, but can’t explicitly say vote for the measure.
Ramee said a teacher promoting a candidate or saying you should vote for or against a bond issue during school hours could be considered use of public resources. The new policy would not prevent employees from endorsing candidates during non-work hours.
Employees can work for candidates on Election Day. Those are generally teacher workdays so employees are supposed to use personal leave if they won’t be at work.
Teachers aren’t supposed to endorse candidates in class
The school board is scheduled to have an initial vote on the new employee political campaign activity policy on Oct. 7. Heagarty said the new policy is not connected to the fallout about teachers commenting on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
School board members said they want the new policy in place before next year’s elections. Races for Congress, the General Assembly, state Supreme Court and school board are among the items that will be on the ballot.
With 20,000 employees, Ramee said there’s a “fair chance” that some employee will tell a student to vote for a particular candidate.
“We could say that’s one teacher,” Ramee said. “We talked to the teacher, right? But having that policy helps protect you because it says you as a board are trying to draw a pretty clear bright line, and if occasionally somebody steps over it, I don’t think that’s necessarily fatal.”
