Taking Them to School

Jim Hunt still drives Republicans crazy. Governor McCrory and GOP leaders scheduled their pay-raise rollout in Jamestown just as Hunt’s Emerging Issues Forum was starting in Raleigh. They wanted to steal the spotlight. But they just spotlighted their own shortcomings.
 
Just as Hunt was saying ALL teachers should get a raise, McCrory & Co. were promising a raise to SOME teachers.
 
Some teachers may buy it. At first. But soon they’ll realize they’ve been had.
 
What kind of company would give a raise to its newest, rawest employees, but stiff its most experienced, capable people? Plus dump more duties and performance measures on them all. Plus treat them all with contempt and a total lack of respect.
 
The GOP plan is a political sham cooked up to deal with a political problem. It also looks like a thinly-veiled slap at NCAE, which has a lot of experienced, activist teachers.
 
Hunt’s Forum dove deep into what’s right and wrong with the teaching profession in North Carolina. What’s right is that we have a lot of great teachers, despite all we’ve done to run them off. What’s wrong is pay, first, and pay has to be raised significantly. But teachers also deserve respect and autonomy. They deserve a fair system of testing. They deserve to be heard in Raleigh.
 
They will never get that from McCrory and the GOP, even if they do get an election-year pay raise. Some of them, that is.
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Gary Pearce

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Taking Them to School

Jim Hunt still drives Republicans crazy. Governor McCrory and GOP leaders scheduled their pay-raise rollout in Jamestown just as Hunt’s Emerging Issues Forum was starting in Raleigh. They wanted to steal the spotlight. But they just spotlighted their own shortcomings.
 
Just as Hunt was saying ALL teachers should get a raise, McCrory & Co. were promising a raise to SOME teachers.
 
Some teachers may buy it. At first. But soon they’ll realize they’ve been had.
 
What kind of company would give a raise to its newest, rawest employees, but stiff its most experienced, capable people? Plus dump more duties and performance measures on them all. Plus treat them all with contempt and a total lack of respect.
 
The GOP plan is a political sham cooked up to deal with a political problem. It also looks like a thinly-veiled slap at NCAE, which has a lot of experienced, activist teachers.
 
Hunt’s Forum dove deep into what’s right and wrong with the teaching profession in North Carolina. What’s right is that we have a lot of great teachers, despite all we’ve done to run them off. What’s wrong is pay, first, and pay has to be raised significantly. But teachers also deserve respect and autonomy. They deserve a fair system of testing. They deserve to be heard in Raleigh.
 
They will never get that from McCrory and the GOP, even if they do get an election-year pay raise. Some of them, that is.
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Gary Pearce

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