Higher employee pay will be key to running Wake schools smoothly, superintendent says
Shortages of teachers, infrastructure and technology workers will hamper schools’ ability to provide the best education, facilities and tools to children, Wake County Public School System Superintendent Robert Taylor said Thursday.
Pay increases will help, he said, but a full reversal of the trends could take years and a much bigger effort than incremental raises.
Taylor spoke Thursday afternoon to a League of Women Voters of Wake County gathering. He spoke briefly on a number of topics but stressed that his end goal of improving education for all students relies on being able to recruit and retain quality faculty and staff.
“I’ve heard people also comment that more money doesn't mean better education,” Taylor said. “Well, I would agree to that. I would agree to that. But also recognize that there are some things that you can't do without the right compensation.”
Teachers will take other jobs, he said. Buildings will wither. Technology won’t work.
Taylor is proposing a $58.3 million increase in county funding for the school system’s budget next year. Most of the system’s budget will come from the state next year, something Taylor has no control over.
Taylor’s budget would allow the district to keep more than 100 employees who are currently funded using federal dollars that will run out next year. It doesn’t include across-the-board raises, unlike the two most recent budgets adopted by the school board. School board members are pushing for pay increases and eyeing what current operations can be cut to make room for them.
The county provides thousands of dollars to teachers every year as a supplement to their base pay from the state. Increases to that supplement the past two years have provided a hundred to a few hundred more dollars each time.
Taylor’s talk Thursday was focused on what he’s learned in his first six months on the job and after holding meetings in the community. He’s heard people say positive things about the schools and teachers but also hears an appetite for improvement,
“A lot of that starts with compensation,” he said. That’s a problem as the cost of living balloons, he said. “It is extremely difficult for a teacher to afford to live in Wake County.”
Wake County is short more than 300 bus drivers and more than 200 teachers, although that’s down from being short more than 300 teachers most of last school year.
Wake isn’t alone in its hiring challenges. Both urban and rural areas have been struggling.
Statewide, more than 6,000 teaching positions were either not filled or were filled by someone who wasn’t a qualified teacher at the beginning of the school year, according to new state data. That was out of the 94,000 traditional public school teaching positions.
Teacher turnover reached 11.5% from March 2022 to March 2023, its highest point since at least 2001, according to a WRAL analysis of state teaching reports.
Audience members expressed concern for more public dollars going to private school vouchers while the state still had a teacher shortage. They also asked about how to press the issue forward.
Taylor said most of the community doesn’t have school-age children but the impact of education is far-and-wide, including when attracting business that want to find local talent.
“People need to understand that we have a teacher shortage in this state,” he said. “And it is across the nation. We have fewer people, children or students going into education. We have more teachers getting out of education.”
Teachers might quit because of money — and stress — but a small raise won’t prevent the shortage from growing, he said. The profession needs major changes that will take time to negotiate, approve and implement. Finally seeing improvements could take seven to 10 years, he said, in part because newly enticed teaching recruits may need four years of college before they can become a teacher.
“We do have a teacher shortage, and it’s not going to change until we start making these kinds of choices,” he said.
