‘Hunger Games’ teacher pay plan is just wrong
A couple of months ago, Cornelius Elementary School librarian Pam Liley gave an apt description of a teacher pay system N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory came up with after lawmakers scrapped the state’s teacher tenure plan. She called it McCrory’s “Hunger Games for teachers” – a reference to the novels and movies that have the poor fighting in competitions against each other for their survival.
McCrory’s idea – establish a $30 million innovation fund to provide $10,000 stipends to 1,000 of the state’s top teachers (about 1 percent) – didn’t get anywhere. But the N.C. legislature’s changes, with the same twisted theme, are being implemented. This summer, the General Assembly voted to end all teacher tenure by 2018. Next year, up to 25 percent of the state’s teachers – those school systems deem the top teachers – will be offered four-year contracts and a $5,000 pay raise for that period. All other teachers will be hired on one-year contracts, with no possibility for tenure. Those teachers already with tenure will be asked to give it up by 2018.
Wake County School Board member Tom Benton voiced last week the big flaw in the state’s plan: “We’re all very confident that more than 25 percent of our teaching staff are superior teachers.”
And well they should be. If only a quarter of the state’s teachers are doing their jobs well, the N.C.