Senate bill would restore master's pay for some teachers

A Senate bill filed Wednesday would restore master's pay for some of North Carolina's public school teachers.

Posted 9:20 p.m. Feb 7, 2019 — Updated 2:11 p.m. Feb 8, 2019

Kelly Hinchcliffe

, WRAL education reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Senate bill filed Wednesday would restore master's degree and doctoral pay for some of North Carolina's public school teachers. Lawmakers cut the pay in 2013.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, and Rick Horner, R-Johnston, has received praise from some Democrats and the North Carolina Association of Educators. However, NCAE leaders say they want master's pay fully restored to previous levels. The current bill would raise pay for teachers who obtain a graduate degree only in their area of teaching.

NCAE President Mark Jewell said he has been fielding a lot of questions from teachers about the bill. In the past, teachers got a 10 percent pay bump from the state for having a master's degree.

"It's been a hot topic," Jewell said. "This would be huge if we could get (master's pay) placed back in. It should have never been taken out in the first place."

He plans to meet with Horner on Monday to ask some clarifying questions about the bill and how it would impact teachers.

"I appreciate him hearing the cries (for master's pay)," Jewell said.

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, tweeted Thursday that he is co-sponsoring the bill, calling it a common-sense bill that should get bipartisan support. Other lawmakers also shared their support.

Restoring master's pay has been a top priority for NCAE, which organized thousands of people for a teacher rally in Raleigh last year. Jewell says master's pay is a major recruiting tool and part of the reason he decided to teach in North Carolina when he arrived in the late 1990s. Had the state not offered it, he would have gone to South Carolina or Georgia, he said.

"It shows the state that you value your employees," he said.

NC ranks 37th in nation for teacher pay, 39th in per-pupil spending

North Carolina ranks 37th in the nation for average teacher pay, according to estimates by the National Education Association. Among the 12 states in the Southeast, North Carolina currently ranks sixth. The State Board of Education has set a goal to become No. 1 in the Southeast.

Teacher salaries in North Carolina are paid both by the state government and, in many counties, by a local supplement.

During the 2001-02 school year, North Carolina ranked 19th in the nation for teacher pay, when its pay was within $2,000 of the then-national average of $44,655, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 2013-14, North Carolina hit its lowest rank in more than a decade – 47th in the nation, with teachers paid nearly $12,000 below the national average of $56,610.

NC's average teacher pay is $51,214. How many teachers make that?

How much to increase teacher pay, if at all, is a perennial budget issue for North Carolina governors and lawmakers. At times, teachers have had pay freezes, no step increases and bonuses of varying amounts. When adjusted for inflation, North Carolina's average teacher salary dropped more than 13 percent from 1999 to 2015, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The U.S. average teacher salary dropped 1.8 percent in that same timeframe.

While average teacher pay rankings are one way to compare North Carolina to the rest of the country, education leaders say those numbers don't tell the whole story because average teacher pay does not take into account the experience level of teachers in different states.