The citizens of North Carolina have had enough of Republican politics when it comes to public education.
In a report that came out on Thursday, the state’s largest school district, Wake County, revealed that as many as 600 public school teachers have left the profession this year. These are 600 professional educators in the state’s largest school district that have found the teaching conditions to be so insufferable that they chose to remove themselves from the classroom even before the school year came to an end. This number is a 41% increase from the previous year and represents a growing trend of educators gradually leaving the state for greener pastures. With the state unlikely to boost teaching salaries for the 2014-2015 school year, many in the Tar Heel State expect to see teachers not only leave Wake County but leave the state entirely for better professional opportunities.
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Much has been written about the failings of North Carolina public education under the Tea Party leadership of Governor Pat McCrory. One of the main issues is, in fact, teaching salaries. North Carolina is currently ranked 46th in average teacher salary and 48th in new teacher salary. Besides the low salaries for both new and veteran teachers, McCrory and his Tea Party-backed legislature chose to eliminate a provision that allowed for teachers to receive automatic pay raises for those that earn master’s degrees. In addition, in 2013 state funds for textbooks were cut by eighty percent, and even though the state’s public school enrollments increased, the state itself cut teaching positions, including 5,200 teachers and 3,850 teacher assistants. It is with these ideas of stagnant salaries, no reward for advance degrees, a lack of materials, and a lack of needed support in the classroom that has caused the swell of teachers to consider other options, just as they are doing in Wake County.
The people of North Carolina are beginning to notice the correlation between Governor McCrory’s polices and the state’s floundering public education system. In fact, one of the key issues in the race for Senate this fall could very well be public education. Currently, Governor McCrory has a massive 78% disapproval rating with voters who identify education as the top issue for Democratic Senator Kay Hagan’s re-election bid. In a state like North Carolina that has been considered a purple state during the previous two presidential elections, that is a huge number and it represents an issue that could be significant for both Democrats as well as independents. Kay Hagan would be wise to use this number and to hammer home her electorate’s disapproval with the Republican policies concerning education in her state.
As of now, it is still undecided which Republican Hagan will face in the November general election. Currently, the top candidates for the race are Thom Tillis and Greg Brannon. Tillis is the current Speaker of the House in the North Carolina House of Representatives, while Brannon is a physician who has never held elected office. Tillis holds the backing of the traditional Republican establishment while Brannon is gaining favor among Tea Party supporters including having public backing from Senator Rand Paul. However, both of these potential candidates would be extremely vulnerable when it comes to educational policy. Tillis has been a voting member of the House of Representatives since 2006 and it has been under his leadership that North Carolina has seen a decimation of the state’s public education system. Brannon himself has stated on his candidate website that he “would end federal involvement in education” and he has gone on the record as having said that public education “does nothing but dehumanize students.”
In what may very well end up being one of the races that decides the balance of the Senate for the next two years, Senator Kay Hagan would be wise to go after her eventual Republican opponent and to hammer him on his views and policies relating to the state’s public education system. It is an issue that is near and dear to many parents and working class families and nobody in the state wants to see qualified, dedicated, and hard-working teachers leave because the state, and more specifically the Republican leadership of the state, has chosen to devalue the education profession. Senator Hagan needs to make this a central message of her campaign and she needs to make people aware of just how far North Carolina education has fallen since the Tea Party leadership of Pat McCrory and his colleagues took over the state government in 2013.
If Senator Kay Hagan can successfully do that, she will have given herself an excellent chance to keep her Senate seat come November.
