Four months into North Carolina’s fiscal year, the state’s budget remains unsettled, leaving public school educators without anticipated cost-of-living raises. These financial challenges are being highlighted in WUNC’s series “From Politics to Paychecks,” showcasing the personal impacts of these policy delays.
In her Mebane garage, Michelle Reed, an English teacher at Cedar Ridge High, sifts through a large black bag filled with scrap metal. Her teenage daughters have been collecting these items for years to sell and bolster their savings.
“Here are vegetable cans from the week. The garage gets full and when it does, we take it and get the money and put it straight in the girls’ savings accounts,” Reed explained.
Reed’s family has been experiencing financial constraints for several years. The state’s pay scale for teachers plateaus at 15 years of experience, and she is now in her 22nd year of teaching.
With inflation, her family had to eliminate non-essential expenses like gym memberships and streaming services.
“Now we feel like we’ve trimmed all the fat we can from our budget, and so now we’re trying to be a little more creative,” Reed said. This creativity includes collecting scrap metal to fund her daughters’ school band trip.
She lamented, “It’s really disheartening that after this long in education, that we are having to resort to things like that.”
In an effort to make ends meet, Reed’s husband has been donating plasma, with plans to use the proceeds for Christmas gifts.
“He does it to be a good human because a person in our family benefits from plasma donations,” Reed noted. “But in our conversations, when we’re trying to figure out how to pay for the unexpected expenses, then he will kind of say, ‘Well, I’ll just go donate plasma again.’ “
Rising Healthcare Costs and Budget Impasse Mean Less Take-Home Pay
Without a finalized state budget, Reed does not anticipate a raise this year. This, combined with rising healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket costs for educators on the state health plan, effectively reduces her take-home pay.
“The state is actually causing us to lose money every month, like fewer dollars in our pocket,” Reed stated.
According to the current salary schedule, teachers in North Carolina receive the same salary from years 15 to 24, aside from minimal increases when a new budget is enacted. Reed finds this unsettling.
“Not getting a raise for 10 years, that’s a third of your career,” she pointed out.
Recent budgets have provided cost-of-living raises that have amounted to less than a monthly tank of gas. Without a budget, there will be no increase at all.
The House’s initial budget proposal promised average teacher raises of up to 9% over two years, while the Senate suggested a 3% raise and a bonus. However, negotiations have stalled, leading to the likelihood that no budget will be approved this year. Even if a budget were passed, both proposals prioritize younger teachers, offering less for veterans.
“It’s really frustrating because the news reports are all about what that average raise looks like, and I doubt the general public really knows that veteran teachers aren’t getting anything,” Reed expressed.
These financial pressures are causing Reed to reconsider her career in teaching.
“Honestly, I never thought that after 22 years of teaching that we would financially be worse off than we’ve ever been before,” Reed said.
Reed is concerned that if other experienced teachers leave for similar reasons, it will significantly impact younger teachers who rely on their mentorship and the students who benefit from their accumulated wisdom.
