This weekend, hundreds of educators from all over North Carolina met in Raleigh for the 49th annual convention of the North Carolina Association of Educators. We celebrated victories in the past year, including the unprecedented May 16 Rally for Respect. The May 16 rally was instrumental in making public education the number one issue in the November general election. That election ended the supermajority responsible for many catastrophic education policies since 2011 and restored a little balance to our state government.
Now it’s time to begin the hard work of rebuilding, and we need all hands on deck once again.
On May 1, we’re calling for all employees of North Carolina schools to take a personal day and join us in Raleigh as we converge on the General Assembly to press for the following 5 changes:
- Provide enough school librarians, psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, and other health professionals to meet national standards
- Provide $15 minimum wage for all school personnel, 5% raise for all ESPs (non-certified staff), teachers, admin, and a 5% cost of living adjustment for retirees
- Expand Medicaid to improve the health of our students and families
- Reinstate state retiree health benefits eliminated by the General Assembly in 2017
- Restore advanced degree compensation stripped by the General Assembly in 2013
There will be opposition to the May 1 All Out rally, including people who say folks that take a personal day to fight for their students are selfish. There will be those who use fear to try to prevent North Carolina educators from uniting to demonstrate our resolve.
Let me remind you that North Carolina’s Professional Teaching Standards encourage you to be active in your advocacy, to work to improve teaching conditions and change policies that negatively impact our profession. It’s an area where we all need to be rated ‘distinguished’:
Teachers strive to improve the teaching profession. They contribute to the establishment of positive working conditions in their school, district, and across the state. They actively participate in and advocate for decision-making structures in education and government that take advantage of the expertise of teachers. Teachers promote professional growth for all educators and collaborate with their colleagues to improve the profession.
- Strive to improve the profession
- Contribute to the establishment of good working conditions
- Participate in decision-making structures
- Promote professional growth
So go ahead and put in your personal day for May 1 and ready your marching shoes. Encourage your colleagues to do the same. Let’s stand up and fight for the public schools our children deserve.
Can’t wait! For priority #1, please include School Psychologists! We have the widest gap between recommended and actual ratios of providers to students in NC.
Yes, members amended that business item yesterday and I neglected to include that information initially. I’ve edited it and it’s now correct. Looking forward to getting those numbers closer to what they need to be so we can move our psychologists from a reactive to a proactive role and free you up to better use your research-based training to support our children.
I’m a retired educator and would like to join the march May 1. Is there a bus going that I could sign up (and pay) for?
Hi Deb! Here is the link for buses leaving from Charlotte.
§ 115C-301.1. Duty-free instructional planning time. This is a law…LAW straight from NC State Legislators. We teachers are to have duty-free planning time AND duty free lunchtime. They do in Cumberland County. Why do they NOT in HOKE COUNTY?! Not on the Elementary school side of the street. Also, Resource Teachers are being used to go into classrooms and the principals call it classroom support. Why??!! We don’t do anything. The academic teachers teach. We stand there and babysit. This does not happen in Cumberland County. The Resource teachers get their 45 minutes a day…A DAY for planning time. Depending on elementary school in Hoke County, the Resource teachers get ONE or NONE. The academic teachers do because while their kids are at Resource…THAT IS THEIR PLANNING TIME. This is breaking the law….THE LAW. When Resource Teachers are NOT GETTING PLANNING TIME but the Academic Teachers are….this provides a bickering atmosphere so thick you can cut it with a knife. Look this up. Hoke County Elementary schools break the law…The Law. When will the NCAE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. They seem to me to be nothing more than a mantle puece that sits around and does nothing. NOTHING. For if they did, teacher wouldn’t have to March in Raleigh. Thanks alot NCAE. Thanks alot State Legislators….FOR NOTHING. You treat us like we are jokes. If you didn’t, there would be more revenue for the NCAE because more teachers would become members knowing that they have our backs. But….THEY DO NOT.
The problem you talk about is very real, but people are working hard for change. I hope you’ll join us in the effort, because nothing is worse than working in a cloud of hopelessness.