Raleigh marchers demand higher pay for NC teachers, support for public schools
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- Thousands of teachers and allies march in Raleigh to demand higher pay and school funding.
- At least 22 districts canceled classes because many employees requested the day off.
- NCAE president urged support for Senate Bill 943 to set corporate tax at 5%.
Thousands of teachers and their allies converged on downtown Raleigh on Friday to demand state lawmakers increase support for public education in North Carolina.
The N.C. Association of Educators mobilized teachers from across the state to march on the Legislative Building to demand higher pay and more school funding, paid for with higher taxes on corporations. At least 22 school districts canceled classes because so many of their employees had requested the day off to attend the “Kids Over Corporations” event.
The crowd gathered in Halifax Mall, just north of the Legislative Building, to listen to speeches before marching around the State Capitol. Many carried homemade signs, including one that read “What’s The Difference Between A Teacher And A Pizza” on one side and on the other, “A Pizza Can Feed A Family Of Four.”
Susan Reynolds, a music teacher at Abbotts Creek Elementary in Raleigh, said she’s been teaching for 26 years but came for the sake of her daughter, who just started a career in teaching.
“Right now, the starting teacher salary is not enough to live off of,” Reynolds said. “So I am here mostly for her, so that she can have a better life than I had here in North Carolina.”
Aside from General Assembly staff and a handful of Democratic lawmakers, the Legislative Building was empty Friday. That didn’t stop marchers from addressing lawmakers as if they could hear and see them, with chants of “Do your job,” and signs such as “The General Assembly gets an F” and “Teaching is what made your job possible.”
For Grace Cole, a school librarian at Pleasant Grove Elementary in Burlington, Friday’s protest was familiar. She was in Raleigh in 2019 marching alongside teachers from across the state to demand better funding.
Seven years later, Cole says, very little has changed. She says her district doesn’t have enough people in roles such as speech therapist and social worker.
“We’re spread very thin,” she said. “You cover a lot of ground. Someone who’s not supposed to be doing a job is asked to do a job, and they might not be fully qualified to do that, but they want to help the kids.”
Republicans downplay march’s significance
Republican legislative leaders dismissed the march in advance, saying they were already working on raising teacher pay. A new report released last week by the National Education Association ranked North Carolina 46th in the nation in both average teacher pay and per-pupil spending. The state is 38th in the nation in beginner pay for teachers.
“Overwhelmingly, most teachers from the state will be at work on Friday,” GOP House Speaker Destin Hall told The News & Observer. “And you know, the group that I understand is putting that on doesn’t spend the time they should on teacher pay raises. They’re more worried about other left-wing political interests.”
As the march concluded, the NC GOP sent out a statement claiming the event was led by “left-wing special interests” who use teachers as “political props.”
“Republicans stand behind our educators and support common-sense policies allowing the focus to be on the classroom and the students,” the statement said.
One Republican who did attend the march was Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, who walked along Halifax Mall asking teachers for their support. Page defeated state Senate leader Phil Berger in the Republican primary and is favored to win his seat in the fall.
Page told educators, including NCAE president-elect Christina Cole, that teacher pay needs to be raised to the highest in the region.
“We don’t need to be last in the Southeast,” he said in an interview. “We need to be first. We’re first in flight. We need to be first in education.”
A focus on how much teachers are paid
Teacher pay was top of mind for many of the marchers. Third-grade teacher Emeline Wilson says she made more money at her second job as a restaurant server last year than she did teaching.
Wilson said she leaves Franklinton Elementary School by 2:45 p.m. and starts her restaurant shift by 3:15 p.m. She said she knows many other teachers who’ve picked up part-time jobs to make ends meet — a reality she said is a “sad” sign of the low wages teachers receive across the state.
“I love my teaching job, and I love my kids,” Wilson said. “But it’s hard when I’m working part-time somewhere else and making more there for less hours.”
Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the NCAE, began the morning’s program by urging attendees to lobby their legislators in support of Senate Bill 943, the “Kids Over Corporations Act.”
The bill, filed by Democrats, would end the planned repeal of the state’s corporate income tax and instead set the rate at 5%.
Walker Kelly claimed the bill would raise $3 billion a year for public schools.
“Let me tell you, this campaign is not just talk,” she said “We got stuff to do. We got solutions. So when you call your legislator, you’re going to tell them to vote for Senate Bill 943.”
Republicans hold strong majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Staff writers Kyle Ingram, Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, Twumasi Duah-Mensah and Faith Wardwell contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 4:13 PM.
