Teacher Pay

State lawmakers plan to wrap up their session this week without a full budget agreement. That impasse prompted the state Senate and House to propose scaled-back spending bills — but so far they can't even agree on the details of that.

The House's budget makes several moves to improve teacher pay that aren't in the Senate's proposal, with big raises for starting teachers and restoring "master's pay."

The state House’s budget bill would delay scheduled income tax cuts while giving state employees and teachers larger raises than the Senate is proposing.

North Carolina's average teacher salary is ranked below neighboring states, and is about $14,000 less than the national average.

Rep. Erin Paré, a co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has filed legislation to increase starting teacher pay to $50,000.

Gov. Roy Cooper attended the state board of education meeting Thursday to share his thoughts on public school funding, alongside Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and State Superintendent Catherine Truitt.

Durham Public Schools will reduce raises given to some staff. In its place, all classified staff – nearly 1,900 employees – will get an 11% raise.

Durham Public Schools' superintendent Pascal Mubenga resigned after it was found that the school district implemented raises for staff that were $9 million over budget due to miscommunication in his administration.

Durham Public Schools has been rocked by staff sick-outs after the district announced its plans to revoke raises for some classified staff who had received them for months. The chaos is disrupting life for families across the district, but especially for students with disabilities who often rely on classified staff far more than other students.

The Durham Association of Educators says at least 75% of school employees at 12 Durham public schools called out of work Wednesday to protest recent cuts to raises for classified staff. Educators gathered at the Minnie Forte-Brown Staff Development Center on Hillandale Road in Durham on Wednesday morning to protest.