So, yesterday was my niece’s first day of fourth grade. It’s honestly hard to believe how fast she’s grown up—it feels like one minute she was crawling around in diapers and then I blinked and now she’s doing fractions and talking pretty intelligently about basic civics.
I’m really excited for her this year. Fourth grade was always my favorite, because it’s the year kids learn about North Carolina history and government. (I will be going full uncle mode when my niece gets to the lighthouse unit, not to mention when they visit Raleigh.) But I was texting with my sister about it yesterday and she mentioned something which, not gonna lie, kind of made my blood boil:
My niece’s fourth grade class doesn’t have a teacher. The school isn’t sure when or if they’re going to have a teacher—they don’t think they’ll be hiring one in the near future. And that’s not a unique circumstance. It’s one that’s being repeated all across North Carolina this year.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has almost 300 teaching positions they’re still trying to fill. Wake County has almost 250. Statewide, there’s a gap of almost 6,000 teacher positions—that’s 6,000 classrooms that will have to depend on jerry-rigged solutions for their education this year.
And as CMS’ superintendent put it in a press conference the other day, “This is not going away. It probably will get worse before it gets better.”
Make no mistake—this situation is a direct result of the legislature’s unwillingness to fund public education. Education is one of our state government’s most important responsibilities. We’re one of the only states in the country that guarantees it as a constitutional right.
And yet, Republican leadership in the General Assembly consistently, year after year, fails to offer our teachers raises that even keep up with the pace of inflation. They fail to fully fund the State Health Plan that comprises one of the most important parts of teachers’ benefits packages. And they foster a culture of hostility toward our educators, falsely painting our teachers as pushing some kind of “woke agenda” on children and pitting parents against them.
Is it any wonder that our schools are having trouble hiring?
Our children are our future. Investing in a world-class education system built this state’s economy—and you can be sure that undermining our public schools like we have will destroy it.
North Carolina’s Treasurer is the steward of healthcare and retirement for our state employees, including educators. More than that, as the keeper of the public purse, they ought to be an advocate for government to fulfill its fundamental responsibilities to all of North Carolina’s taxpayers. We need a Treasurer who will get out there from Murphy to Manteo and make the case for doing right by our teachers so that our people can hold their legislators accountable.
That’s one thing I hope to do as your Treasurer next year. But I need your help to get there. There are just ten weeks left until election day, and we’re already seeing my opponent starting to ramp up attacks on my experience and my character. Everything we raise helps us counter those attacks and set the narrative for voters—so can I count on you to make a contribution of any amount you can afford today?
