“It’s Like They Want Us to Be Stupid!”

The State of Education in North Carolina

It’s not often that my home state of North Carolina makes the news for anything other than basketball or some athletics scandal. It’s high time for that to change! The public education system in North Carolina is at a crisis point, and it’s time for the rest of the world to take notice.

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of our series on student voices. We ask that you join the conversation in the responses below by adding words of constructive criticism and support, keeping in mind that education is, ultimately, for the students.

How Are the Educators Being Treated?

In 2014 North Carolina was given the dubious honor of being the “Worst State in the Nation for Teachers.” The Wallethub ranking was based on factors like teacher salary, per pupil spending, and school safety.

In 2015 they had made the astronomical leap to…the 2nd worst state for teachers. We had managed to outrank West Virginia.

Teachers in the state of North Carolina haven’t gotten a raise in seven years. But Anna, didn’t the Republicans give teachers a $270/year pay raise a few years ago? Yes, my dear reader, they did, but that was after 5 straight years of no increases whatsoever and that $270 in no way kept pace with inflation rates. Even with “raises,” teachers are losing money.

On top of that, the majority of teachers are forced to supply their own classroom supplies. On average teachers in the US spend $500 per school year to supply their classrooms! That added up to about $1.6 billion spent by US teachers in 2013.

Along with not getting payed well and having to supply their own classrooms, the North Carolina legislature has also effectively abolished tenure in the public education. After multiple years without pay increase, and in truth, pay cuts for many of them, experienced teachers were given a deal to waive seniority in order to get a raise.

So teachers aren’t receiving pay increases, they aren’t receiving seniority for experience, and they have to supply their own classrooms… and the state wonders why there is a 30% drop in university students that want to be teachers. There is also a rising percentage of teachers who are leaving to teach in other states or retiring early. North Carolina cannot get or keep good teachers and the students are the ones suffering.

Well, At Least the Schools Are Good, Right?

I’m going to get personal here, so bear with me. The quote that serves as a title for this piece is from my 12 year old little sister. During this conversation, I realized that she is using the exact same textbook I was using when I was her age. It was used when I had it! That means that for about ten years, the state has not updated textbooks in public schools. These kids are using history textbooks that don’t even have Obama on the list of United States Presidents! My kid sister is a bit of a genius and was well aware of what she called the “textbook situation,” which is what prompted her to say the title phrase.

These students are being forced to use out-of-date textbooks, that is, when they have them at all. The budget crisis is so bad at some schools that teachers do not even have a complete classroom set of textbooks for their students to use.

To complement the lack of textbooks, many students are also faced with schools that are literally falling down around them. Many of the schools in North Carolina are upwards of 50 years old, if not older. These schools are in serious need of repair, but the schools lack the funds or the staff to properly care for the facility.

Now don’t get me wrong—some of that could come from misappropriation of funding. Apparently, at my sister’s school they do not have money for textbooks or repairs, yet they can spend $1000 a year on the middle school basketball team, and then renovate the court every three years. Now this could be rumors, yet given the almost religious or cult-like nature of sports in the South, I really don’t have a hard time believing this.

It is important to note that a lot of the hardships associated with lack of school supplies and poor building quality tend to disproportionately affect lower-income areas. In my experience, it is these areas that generally have the older school buildings, they have the most issues with overcrowding, and they have parents who may be unable to donate the funds to schools to make up the difference.

How Are the Students Faring?

As if being a student in North Carolina wasn’t hard enough without well-payed teachers and adequate supplies, there is a whole host of poverty-related problems that students face.

1 in 4 students in North Carolina lack adequate nutrition. 1 in 4 children in North Carolina live in poverty. 29% of children under 6 years of age in North Carolina are a member of a poor family. Depressed yet? If not, here’s a whole load of statistics about childhood poverty in North Carolina.

There are many students in North Carolina who don’t eat if they don’t go to school. The link between poor nutrition and education is well-documented. If you are hungry, it is harder to learn—that is not a hard concept to understand—yet the meals these students to get from school are usually of low nutritional quality. Yes, it’s something, but we can definitely do better. We must do better.

Will We Allow This to Continue?

The state of education in North Carolina is pretty dire. Teachers are getting a raw deal, schools aren’t up to snuff, and students are struggling. Something has got to give, and it’s time for everyone to say enough is enough. Our children are our future, and the ones in North Carolina are no exception!