During the weekdays, Karla Buchanan teaches fourth grade at Estes Elementary. But when school lets out on Friday, she races over to Ingles to clock in for her second job: bookkeeping.

“I’ll leave school by 3:15 p.m. so I can be at Ingles by 3:30,” she said. “I work until midnight on Friday, an 8-hour shift on Saturday and Sunday morning before I start Monday back at school. It’s almost 24 hours of work in a 3-day weekend.”

Karla’s story isn’t unique among teachers in the Asheville area. With rent prices on the rise, more and more educators are struggling to live where they work.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Zillow, Asheville is one of the most difficult cities in North Carolina to live as a teacher. To afford median rent in Asheville, early-career teachers would have to shell out 54.2% of their annual salary. Only Raleigh, at 55.4%, is higher.

“I know friends who can live in these apartments that are going up everywhere,” Karla said. “People that didn’t even finish their degree can afford those, but I know I couldn’t. And I have a four-year degree.”

Recent salary boost?

The average salary for public school teachers in North Carolina has risen to $53,975 this year. According to the National Education Association (NEA), that ranks North Carolina at 29th in the country for teacher pay, up from 34th last year.

But many teachers in Asheville haven't felt a large pay hike.

“It’s really misleading when people say that the average teacher pay is $53,000,” said Davis Seeger, a sixth grade teacher at Asheville Middle School. “Most of the teachers I see in school are making $30,000-$40,000 per year. I’m making $38,000.”

The $53,975 number cited by the NC Department of Public Instruction factors in an average local salary supplement of $4,580. It also includes teachers who are still receiving pay for their master’s degree, a program that was cut by the legislature in 2013. When adjusted for inflation, North Carolina educators have seen a 1.3% average salary loss since the 2009-10 school year.

For teachers without master's pay or National Boards certification — a process that costs nearly $2,000 — annual income on the state salary schedule peaks at $52,000. That's after 25 years of teaching.

Read more:Teacher pay really that low locally?

Both Buncombe County Schools and Asheville City Schools offer teachers a local salary supplement, depending on their experience level. BCS's supplements range from 8.5%-16% of the teacher's base salary, and ACS's ranges from 9%-16.5%.

A statewide fight

The teacher pay debate in North Carolina has been heating up in recent years.

Thousands of teachers from across the state rallied in the capital on May 1 this year, while a local rally in Pack Square Park drew over 100 people. Marchers' demands included a 5% teacher pay raise and a restoration of the state's master's pay program.

In Raleigh, the debate has cleaved lawmakers down party lines.

Republican Senator Chuck Edwards — who represents pieces of Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania counties — noted in a statement to the Citizen Times that "the 2018-19 education budget is the highest in state history."

"Republicans provided teachers with the third-highest pay raise in the entire country over the last five years," Edwards said. "Republican education policies are working."

In a recent op-ed written for the Citizen Times, Edwards pointed out that teachers have received an average salary hike of $9,075 since 2014. Under the Republican General Assembly, starting teacher pay also increased to $35,000.

Read More:Why Republican leadership in North Carolina has actually benefited teachers | OPINION

But Democratic Senator Terry Van Duyn believes that the General Assembly under Republican leadership has failed teachers. Van Duyn backs Gov. Roy Cooper's budget proposal, which she says provides teachers "a 9.1% average pay raise, as opposed to just 3.4% in the Republican budget that passed in the Senate."

This debate came to a head on June 27, when the General Assembly approved a two-year budget that includes an average teacher pay raise of 3.9%. But the proposed raises will affect only teachers with over 15 years of experience, and early career teachers will see no salary increase.

The budget was vetoed by Cooper on June 28, due in part to the teacher pay issue.

"We trust our teachers to educate our children," Cooper said at a press conference announcing his veto. "Let's put our money where our trust is."

The cost of low pay

While Republican and Democratic lawmakers debate education funding in Raleigh, some teachers in Asheville are juggling the daily challenges of life on a budget.

"I'm living paycheck to paycheck," Seeger said. "It's survival at this point. I do a lot of grocery shopping at discount food stores. ... It really helps if the food is already expired."

Buchanan, the Estes teacher, just discovered that she's pregnant with twins. "I work every other weekend at Ingles during the school year, and I work the entire summer there," she said. "But I don't know how that will happen now, with two kids coming into the picture."

"I have to rent out a portion of my home to pay my mortgage in Asheville," Asheville Middle School journalism and theater teacher Savanah Forsythe said at a recent NC Association of Educators event. "The state values my work at less than $40,000 per year. And I have three degrees."

But many local teachers agree that the fight for better pay isn't just about today's teachers — it's about the future of education in the Asheville area.

“I don’t regret taking on teaching. I love my job,” Buchanan said. “But it’s scary to think that good teachers are being pushed away because they can’t afford to do it.”

Brook Thompson is the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Liaison at UNC Asheville. When she speaks to local high school students about a future career in education, the state salary schedule is often a part of the conversation.

“The students bring up the issue of low teacher salaries almost every time I talk to a high school class. It’s very hard to recruit young people to the profession,” Thompson said.

“Teachers tell me that they don’t feel like they can, in good conscience, encourage their students to become teachers," she said.

President of the Buncombe County Association of Educators Paula Dinga also worries about low state pay pushing educators away from Asheville — and out of the state.

"This is absolutely disincentivizing young people from becoming teachers," Dinga said.

And some Asheville area educators are thinking the same thing.

"Teachers like me, who love teaching, are going to have to ask, can I afford to be here for the rest of my life?" Forsythe said. "Or am I going to have to move somewhere else?"