Money, Money, Money

Governor Easley has endorsed an across-the-board pay raise for North Carolina teachers because, Easley said, teachers need to be paid at or above the national average. JLF education analyst Terry Stoops weighed in with this Spotlight paper, which explains that, contrary to what Easley claims, North Carolina teachers already are paid above the national average when salaries are adjusted for cost of living and other elements of compensation. In fact, the state ranks 11^th in the nation, with adjusted average pay of about $1,600 above the national average. Stoops makes his argument next Sunday on NBC 17’s “At Issue” in a face-off with John Dornan of the NC Public School Forum. In Charlotte, Stoops’ analysis of the upcoming Charlotte/Mecklenburg school bond was the source of a recent piece by Warren Smith in The Charlotte World.