By Chad Nance

Additional Reporting by Stephanie Hess & Carissa Joines

Following draconian cuts to education, a push toward privatization funded by ALEC, Art Pope, and private education companies like K12, as well as open, politically motivated attacks on the teaching profession in North Carolina – 273 of Forsyth County’s teachers chose to resign at the end of the 2012-13 school year. Ten of those who resigned had previously retired, returned to work, then resigned. An additional 92 teachers retired. “I would have waited another year [to retire] and waited until I could get full social security, but I chose to retire now because of the stressors of the position.” said Karin Binkley, a 5th grade teacher who retired at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

The fact that North Carolina is at the bottom of the national rankings for teacher pay is not the only reason that educators resign or retire, but there is little question that it is the elephant in the room. The hard right extremism of the NC legislature’s Republican Supermajority added insult to injury by giving educators a paltry 1.2 percent pay raise last year. That is the same as all other state employees who do not or have not worked for Governor Pat McCrory‘s campaigns, and the net effect is that teacher salaries have not increased. North Carolina has seen the most severe decline in teacher pay in America. According to the NEA, teacher salaries dropped by 15.7 percent from 2001 to 2011, putting North Carolina 46th in the US for teacher pay.

According to reports compiled by the NC Department of public instruction the teacher turn-over numbers have hovered between 11 and 12%. A more dramatic change has been in the number of teachers who left the job citing “dissatisfied with teaching” or “career change” as their reason. This represents an increase from 5% in 2008 to 7% in 2012. After 2010 the state reports quit listing “dissatisfied with teaching” and simply began to record the data under the reason “Other”.

Contrary to Republican messaging about “greedy” and “lazy” teachers, the reasons given by educators who are leaving is rarely just financial. “Teachers are torn in so many different directions with additional responsibilities – professional development, data collection and recording, testing – that the energy for the classroom is depleted. So much is planned into a day, I felt I was losing time to be personal with my students.” Binkley said.

Since 2010 the North Carolina legislature has seen the election of politicians who have run for office on the idea that North Carolina’s education system was broken and needed reform. While this claim was false and North Carolina’s public schools were a national model, it turned out to be effective political messaging. The results of “reform” have been the dismantling of former Governor Jim Hunt’s proud education legacy and the introduction of confusing and sometimes contrary mandates from Raleigh onto NC’s educators. Basically the plan appears to be to break and crush public education in North Carolina, then create a situation where the further privatization of public education seems like a viable option to frustrated and concerned parents.

“The changes have been immense – to the point of confusion. And all of the changes [in curriculum, class sizes, testing, etc] never go to a goal to help the children. I’ve seen economically needy children suffer the most,” one former teacher told CCD.

Teacher “accountability” is also a major issue that is driving educators from the profession. While the political messaging about holding educators “accountable” sounds good, the reality is that unlike any other state job, such as those given to young, former campaign staffers of Governor McCrory, teachers are already held to a higher standard. Teachers must have earned specific degrees and passed rigorous licensing testing, as well as continue professional development to maintain their certification. Politicians know that if they yell enough about “accountability” that the impression on the public will be that teachers are not currently being held accountable. It is the same way messaging worked on voter fraud in spite of the fact that there is no evidence of voter fraud.

One of the biggest issues frustrated teachers cite is a high level of accountability with almost no autonomy. “I was 100% accountable for the achievement of the students – measured only through quantitative assessments and data – but I was told exactly how, when, and what to teach: my schedule was laid out for me down to the minute. I could make very few decisions day to day based on what I thought was best for my kids,” another teacher who resigned from the school system at the end of the 2012-2013 school year told CCD.

Teacher and instructional support personnel in NC grew from 56,000 in 1980-81 to 130,594 in 2011-12, (most recent data available) more than doubling in that 30 year time span. Data reported for the last two school years shows that the top reason teachers left the school system was retirement. Resignation for a career change rose from the #11 reason for turnover in the ’09-’10 school year to the 8th reason in ’10-’11 and the 6th reason for teachers leaving the system in the ’11-’12 school year. These numbers do not include those teachers who left the profession citing “dissatisfaction with teaching” who may not seek any employment after quitting teaching.

According to information from the Public School Forum of NC, an estimated 20,000 students will be added to the NC school system every year for the foreseeable future. NC typically hires 9000-12000 teachers a year. Considering that the turnover rate for NC saw approximately 11,000 teachers leaving the school system in the most recent year reported, the hiring rate is not keeping up with the growing need for teachers required by the increase in students. This increase in student population, combined with the large number of baby boomers who are approaching retirement based on age and years of service, will mean that NC will soon face an immense teacher shortage. Add to that the increase in teachers leaving the profession because of dissatisfaction with teaching and/or to pursue another profession, this shortage could quickly reach a crisis level.

Although teacher retirement will likely result in the largest loss of teachers in the system in the next 5 years, the loss of teachers to other professions could have an equally profound impact on the quality and effectiveness of teaching in the state. Inexperienced teachers have lower student outcomes than experienced teachers, with first year teachers being less effective in 9 of 11 comparisons, and second and third year teachers being less effective in 5 of 9 comparisons. Additionally, elementary reading teachers are less effective until their 5th year of teaching, and elementary math students lose the equivalent of 21 days of schooling when taught by an inexperienced teacher. Middle school math students lose the equivalent of 47 days of school under inexperienced teachers – which equates to missing one full 9 week quarter of school.

What is missing from the current policy discussions about the future of education in North Carolina are the children, the students themselves. While partisan ideology and the anticipated market opportunities of private educators and their capital investors are driving “reform”, it is the students who will suffer in the end. This will be especially true as more and more experienced teachers leave the workforce, leaving young teachers without mentors.

If we are going to hold teachers to a data-based standard as if they were corporate telemarketers or assembly line factory workers, then the students will no doubt emerge from their educational experience no more creative, fluid, or educated than the average widget.

“You get what you pay for” is a cliché rooted in reality. Unfortunately for many of North Carolina’s students they are going get exactly what the current state government has paid for… a substandard education purchased on the cheap then owned and operated by the lowest bidder.