45% Drop In …

… students declaring education as a major in UNC’s public university system which is the largest supplier of teachers into our state’s public schools.

Public Schools First NC continues to be a foundational resource for public school advocates and every year they update their “Fact Sheets” to shed a true light on the state of public education. More importantly, what they reveal is how our gerrymandered NC General Assembly neglects our public schools.

In 2012 NC public university students declaring a major in education were under the impression that public school teachers in North Carolina could be given a pay boost for graduate degrees, receive due-process rights after three years, and also receive longevity pay if they made teaching a career.

North Carolina changed all of that in 2014. Longevity pay was taken from all teachers. New teachers after 2014 could not get graduate degree pay or due-process rights.

Schools still need teachers and when there are not enough qualified candidates, those positions remain vacant or are filled with unqualified or underqualified individuals.

From EdSurge in 2023:

It makes reference to a Kansas State University study about teacher vacancies and under-qualified teachers.

“Tuan D. Nguyen, an assistant professor at Kansas State University’s College of Education, and his colleagues found at least 163,000 teaching positions nationwide are held by underqualified teachers. Another 36,500 teaching jobs sit vacant, according to their 2022 report.”

The data that NC was reported with came from the 2020-2021 school year. If you think that the pandemic ameliorated this trend, then many who work in schools would be in fierce disagreement. If anything, the pandemic has exacerbated this trend.

Only two other states had more vacancies at the time of the study: Florida and California. The totals in Florida have probably gone up considerably since then with DeSantis’s policies.

That’a not a flattering distinction for North Carolina.

Nor is this #4 ranking:

What makes this so much more stark is that North Carolina has more Nationally Board Certified Teachers than any state in the country.

Simply go to this site and compare – https://www.nbpts.org/support/in-your-state/.