Saving North Carolina’s Public Education System
How to Stop Those Who Would Betray the State’s Children and Future
As part of its work on public education in America, Civic Way is taking a closer look at one state—North Carolina. This is the sixth essay in Civic Way’s series on North Carolina’s primary and secondary education system (see the last essay). The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.
Teachers have the hardest and most important jobs in America. They're building our nation. And we should appreciate them, respect them, and pay them well.
– Jim Hunt (former Governor of North Carolina)
The Threats to North Carolina’s Public Education System
North Carolina’s public education crisis has many causes and symptoms. We will describe these ills, and how they threaten the future of the public education system in the next several essays. The areas of concern discussed in this essay involve the state’s learning environment and instructional methods.
1. Destabilizing the Public-School Learning Environment.
Thanks to several factors, including the NCGA’s warped priorities, the state’s public school learning environment has become markedly less hospitable to educators and children alike.
Public outrage. Lawsuits. Threats against public school officials. The inexcusable culture war dismissals of outstanding educators. The public shaming of LGBTQ children. The banning of books—like Anne Frank’s Diary, The Handmaid’s Tale, Beloved, The Kite Runner, and Between the World and Me. The such groups fix their vitriol only on public schools leaves little doubt about their agenda—to convince others to abandon public schools.
Regardless of what anti-public-school extremists are trying to achieve, they are having a harmful impact on our public schools—and our society. The shameful—and well-funded—attacks by extremist front groups such as the Mothers of Liberty have taken a heavy toll on public schools and educators, persuading many to leave a profession to which they had hoped to dedicate their lives.
Staff turnover and vacancies have become a grave problem for most public-school districts. Over 25 percent of the state’s LEAs started the school year with a superintendent vacancy or an interim/new superintendent (Education NC). State LEAs need about 300 new principals every year[i]. According to the North Carolina Public School Forum, LEAs began this school year with nearly 3,600 teacher vacancies[ii]. And rising bus driver vacancies have forced many districts to restructure routes or curtail service.
These vacancies have many causes like poor working conditions, political interference, and low job satisfaction. Inferior pay is another. North Carolina’s average salary for principals and other administrators is substantially lower than most other states[iii], and cuts to retiree health and pension benefits haven’t helped. After years of allowing inflation to outpace teacher salaries, North Carolina ranks 46th in the US in starting teacher pay and 32nd in average teacher pay. Its teacher salaries even suffer in comparison to those of other Southeastern states.
The rising attrition rate also may force some LEAs to use unqualified educators (at least temporarily). The NCGA’s 2011 decision to cancel the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program was mystifying. Worse, enrollment in traditional development programs has been declining.[iv] Many state officials recognize the need to invest more in principal and teacher recruitment, licensing, and development. And to build a better system for evaluating the performance of administrators and teachers.
Obsolete and poorly maintained school buildings loom as another threat to the learning environment. Capital needs, increasingly ignored by the NCGA, are mounting across the state. To illustrate, the capital needs for Orange County’s two LEAs—only two of the state’s 115 LEAs—are estimated at $500 million. Yet, the NCGA’s top budget priority is whether to expand casinos. Go figure.
Perhaps the most ominous threat to the learning environment is school safety. According to the Pew Research Center, firearms are the leading cause of death for school-aged children in the US. Since 1999, over 360,000 children have experienced gun violence at school. In the last three years, the firearm death rate increased by 50 percent and school shootings by over 100 percent.
Regrettably, due to the NCGA’s focus on contrived issues, the school safety issue has received scant attention. Of course, nothing has distracted the NCGA from making guns more accessible.
Given this litany of problems—and the pandemic—is it any wonder that student absenteeism is on the rise? In North Carolina, like most states, the chronic absenteeism rate rose dramatically during the pandemic[v]. But the problem is worse in North Carolina. For the 2021-22 school year, North Carolina had the 13th highest chronic absenteeism rate and 10th-highest rate increase. Chronic absenteeism is more prevalent among Latino, Black and low-income students.
Regardless of the factors contributing to turbulent conditions in public schools, an inhospitable learning environment poses a threat to educators and children. It is time to take it seriously.
2. Impeding Good Faith Efforts to Modernize Public Instruction.
Keeping instructional programs aligned with modern society is a huge challenge. DPI and public education advocates understand this, but their efforts are too often impeded by inadequate funding, and political interference. The constant legislative focus on political distractions like CRT, grooming and wokeness make it all that much tougher for education officials to do their jobs.
Instructional matters are beyond the scope of this analysis, but there appear to be several instructional issues that merit further study and action, including the following:
School calendar – transitioning from an obsolete calendar influenced by agriculture and tourism sectors to one more aligned with the needs of children, families and other employers
Instructional standards – updating the accreditation process for public schools, establishing accreditation requirements for private schools and funding the migration to new standards
Instructional methodologies – continued focus on maximizing the utility of reading, team teaching, technology, remote learning, tutoring, student enrichment and remediation strategies
Student resources – ensuring that LEAs have enough resources (e.g., teachers, teacher assistants, counselors, nurses and laptops), to meet the academic, social and health needs of students
Partnerships – taking advantage of available community resources to meet the educational needs of children (e.g., public universities, community colleges and workforce training partnerships)
Sex education – making reproductive health education more honest, pragmatic and comprehensive[vi], balancing information about the risks of premarital sexual activity with the potential benefits of abstinence and contraception
Civic education – devoting more classroom time to teaching the values of good citizenship, including fiscal literacy, community, volunteerism, voting, good government and democracy
Civic education is much bigger than civic engagement. It should also be about community and character. About balancing individual goals with social values like kindness. About replacing fear, rage and tribalism with courage, compassion and civility. The role of public schools in imparting the lessons of good citizenship and importance of public service cannot be understated.
In our next essay, we will address some other threats to North Carolina’s public education system. Two issues—school choice and private school vouchers—will be on the agenda.