"Great!" you might think, "Let's pay those teachers what they are worth! $50,000 is a respectable wage; way to go NC!"
Or if you are a teacher you might think, "50,000!?! Where in the world is this number coming from? I know what I make and it is nowhere close to that! In fact, I'll probably never make that much!"
So where does that number come from? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure (I did contact CPRNC; they did not respond), but I do have a pretty good idea...
Each year the NC legislature votes on and approves the salary schedule for NC teachers. The salary schedule is based on years of experience and degrees.
There are 8 salary schedules published:
1. Teachers with a bachelor's degree
2. Teachers with a bachelor's degree and National Board Certification
3. Teachers with a Master's degree
4. Teachers with a Master's degree and National Board Certification
5. Teachers with an Advanced (sixth year) degree
6. Teachers with an Advanced (sixth year) degree and National Board Certification
7. Teachers with a Doctoral degree
8. Teachers with a Doctoral degree and National Board Certification
Each of those 8 categories listed above is shown on the salary schedule as a separate column. Then there are 23 or 26 salaries listed for 0-25+ years of experience (teachers cannot earn their NBPTS Certification until their 4th year of teaching) in each column. All in all, this means there are 196 salaries listed on the document for licensed teachers. When you average these 196 salaries, guess what you get?
$49, 685.87
Well, there you go! Teachers do basically make an average of $50,000.
(Many school systems choose to supplement their teachers' salaries using local funds. If I understand correctly, once you add in the supplements the average raises to $50,150, like the commercials said. I did not do the math to verify this.)
But, wait. There are a couple of things to consider...
- The average salary might be almost $50,000 but that doesn't mean the average teacher makes that. They clearly did not calculate that number by averaging the salary of every public school teacher in NC.
- Very few public school teachers fit into the last four categories (having advanced or doctoral degrees). Educators that fit those categories have often left the classroom and work in a school system position or in school administration. So if you look at just the first four categories (bachelors and masters degrees with and without NBPTS certification) the average salary becomes $47,648.36. If you take out NBPTS certification, the average salary is $45,193.54.
- If you just look at the salary schedule for a teacher with a bachelor's degree, the average salary is $41,769.23 with the maximum salary being $51,000 (for 25+ years of experience).
- So while the commercials are technically correct, odds are that your child's teacher is probably not making $50,000 and if they are, they almost certainly aren't making much more than $50,000.
Final note:
In 1999, the average teacher salary in NC was $39,404 and the national average was $41,807, ranking NC 22nd in the nation.
In 2014, the average teacher salary in NC was $47,783 and the national average was $57,389, ranking NC 42nd in the nation.
Adjusting for inflation, the average NC teacher salary decreased 13% from 1999 to 2014.
There's a lot more I could say about how the NC legislature pays (and treats) teachers, but I think this is enough for now.
Now read the follow up post concerning pay for advanced degrees: Click here.
Figurs don't lie, but liers figure!
ReplyDeleteI think it is really important to note that, adjusted for inflation, already low teacher salaries have even less buying power!
ReplyDeleteBy the way don't forget that if you are a teacher that moved to NC after 2013-14 school year, most counties in the state will not recognize your masters or advance degree... I have both ... Still get payed bachelor scale ....smh
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I was trying to verify that you had to be grandfathered in to or that it had been be required for your position, but I had trouble finding a good source that really explained it all. Including the pay scales for graduate degrees feels dishonest to me because it implies that a teacher has that option to grow professionally and increase their salary, which is no longer true.
DeleteDid some more research today and did a follow up post on this. If you'd like to check it out: http://www.littlemamabee.com/2016/08/the-average-nc-teacher-salary_23.html
DeleteThe real problem is NOT ALL teachers got a raise. The teachers with 25 or more years of service got NOTHING!
ReplyDeleteI agree. That also is problematic as the commercials state "voted to raise pay by over 15%" which makes it sound as though ALL teachers got a 15% raise. Again, not technically false when worded that way, but definitely misleading and not technically true either.
DeleteNot raising pay for teachers with 25 or more years experience was well-calculated omission. It encourages more experienced, and generally better paid teachers to retire sooner, opening spaces to be filled by freshly-minted teachers at the bottom of the ladder. Everyone gets the shaft in our super-majority Republican state, especially teachers. And the inevitable decline in educational quality will help ensure the continued election of Back-ass-ward idiots.
DeleteI believe you are correct but in reality it is foolish to run off the 25 year plus crowd. They go from making 50,000 a year to teach to costing the state 30,000 a year to retire. That position they left now requires a new teacher which with benefits costs NC at least $40,000. The result is the state is now paying 80,000 or more to do what was done on $55,000. The reason they do this is retiree pay comes from the pension fund and not general budget. Our GA is playing shell games with state funds IMHO.
DeleteDon't forget that pay for a masters is only if you earn it before June of 2013 - it is not longer an option.
ReplyDeleteI did a follow up post to address this: http://www.littlemamabee.com/2016/08/the-average-nc-teacher-salary_23.html
DeleteManipulating the facts as they always do
ReplyDelete