JUSTIN PARMENTER: Educators back Cooper's pay raise veto, lawmakers must do better

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019 -- Ask a majority party legislator why they aren't providing more for public education in North Carolina and you're likely to hear--as Rep. Craig Horn recently told the New York Times--"We simply don't have the money." That excuse is wearing extremely thin as the General Assembly recently passed its sixth corporate tax cut in the last seven years.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Nov 12, 2019 — Updated 10:50 a.m. Nov 12, 2019

EDITOR’S NOTE: Justin Parmenter is a seventh grade language arts teacher at Waddell Language Academy in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school system.

Asheville City Schools full-time instructional assistant Angel Redmond is in her 4th year with the school system and her 21st year in education. Angel has a degree in psychology, and her duties include teaching math and reading to small groups, handling discipline issues, proctoring standardized tests, and substitute teaching when needed. Her current salary is just $22,000 per year, which means that she has to put in 15 hours a week at her second job in order to make ends meet.

Under a General Assembly plan for educator pay which was vetoed last week by Gov. Roy Cooper, Angel would have seen an increase of only $18.26 per month. That’s enough for roughly half a tank of gas.

Cooper’s veto of the poorly-named “Strengthening Educators’ Pay Act” came at the request of public school educators and advocates. On the surface it might seem like a peculiar move for a governor who has vowed to bring much-needed improvements to public education in our state, and Senate leader Phil Berger wasted no time framing Cooper as an enemy of teachers.

However, the legislation would have provided little more than table scraps from a General Assembly majority that has consistently underfunded public education and deprived our schools of billions in potential revenue via massive tax rate cuts since taking control of the House and Senate nearly a decade ago.

Under the bill, teachers with 0-15 years experience would not have received any raise this year. Teachers with 16-20 years would see only $50 more a month before taxes. Teachers from 21-24 years of experience would get $150 more a month, while our most dedicated veterans with 25 years or higher would have salaries raised $60 a month. For school year 2020-21, teachers with 0-15 years would again get nothing, and teachers with 16 years or more would all get another $50 a month.

It’s important to note that, for the 2020-21 school year and an election year, the language of the bill reads “it is the intent of the General Assembly” to raise salaries rather than using the word “shall” as it does for the current school year. That means the raises for next year were not guaranteed.

State legislators offered to increase the pay raises by adding $245 million more in education funding, but, in a particularly disgraceful move, made those funds contingent on an override of the governor’s state budget veto, effectively holding educator salaries hostage and agreeing to free them only if they get their way on Medicaid. It was a new low in a shameful session which has also seen majority party lawmakers subvert the democratic process by launching ambush votes when opposition members were not on the floor--since they didn’t have the votes for an override otherwise.

As bad as this deal would have been for teachers, it would have been downright insulting for our non-certified staff and retirees. The vetoed legislation provided no cost of living adjustment for retired educators and would have increased pay for bus drivers, cafeteria employees, custodians and other classified employees by just $15-20 a month.

Ask a majority party legislator why they aren’t providing more for public education in North Carolina and you’re likely to hear--as Rep. Craig Horn recently told the New York Times—“We simply don’t have the money.” That excuse is wearing extremely thin as the General Assembly recently passed its sixth corporate tax cut in the last seven years. The latest tax bill, which was vetoed by Gov. Cooper at the same time as the educator pay raise, would have reduced the franchise tax for corporations that already enjoy the North Carolina’s lowest tax rate in the country. According to the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division, it would have decreased revenue by approximately $250 million per year. Along with the billions we’ve already lost to tax cuts, it’s money that could make a real difference in the education of North Carolina’s children and in the lives of valuable employees like Angel Redmond.

Governor Cooper has offered to sit down and negotiate salary increases for educators independent of the Medicaid expansion issue that has been at the center of this year’s budget impasse. Those kinds of negotiations are exactly what North Carolina’s residents deserve.

A year ago, voters called for a return to political balance in our traditionally purple state. It’s not unreasonable to expect our elected officials to sit down and have conversations with each other that lead to compromises. That’s the way democracy is supposed to work, and it’s an approach that could bring long overdue resources to North Carolina’s public schools.

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