Legislators Keep Making Teacher Shortage Worse

Teacher vacancies have reached an all-time high for an incredible third year in a row. This ignominious achievement should be driving a mass wave of legislative resignations. After all, teachers are the most important in-school factor in student learning and legislators are constitutionally obligated to make sure every classroom is led by an effective teacher. They had a job, and they’ve failed spectacularly.

Normal people would look for new work if they were this bad at their jobs. Unfortunately, the lawmakers charged with providing North Carolinians with decent schools lack such principles. They aren’t ashamed because record high teacher vacancies are the deliberate and predictable result of their continued focus on anti-teacher policies that harm students.

On the 40th day of this school year, there were 7,141 vacancies, a shocking 19 percent increase over the prior year. One in every 14 classrooms lack a properly licensed teacher. These vacancies have a ripple effect throughout the school, as experienced, credentialed teachers are forced to cover for unfilled positions.

Teacher vacancies remain correlated with income and race. That means that Black students and students from families with low incomes are more likely to be in schools with higher teacher vacancies.

The lawmakers in Raleigh who are responsible for these massive, inequitable shortages are aware of this problem. They know the solutions. The North Carolina Justice Center has provided them with research-based solutions every year since teacher vacancies began to skyrocket.

Let us once again remind them of the actions they must take to attract and retain excellent, well-trained professionals in every classroom:

Large, across-the-board pay raises
Proper staffing levels for support staff such as teacher assistants, psychologists, nurses, counselors, and social workers
Capital improvements to ensure each school offers a healthy, inviting learning environment
Restoration of professional development and early career mentoring funds
Bringing an end to the micro-managing, rhetorical attacks, and divisive moral panics aimed at undermining public schools

Rather than addressing the problem, they continue to make things worse. The Senate Budget proposes an average “raise” of just 3 percent over two years – falling short of projected inflation. That means the Senate’s piddly “raise” would leave teachers with less purchasing power than they have today.

Both chambers are micromanaging how teachers teach based on a racist moral panic centered on unfounded concerns related to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Under the House version of the bill, teachers could face civil penalties of up to $10,000 if they stray on the wrong side of the legislation’s vague, poorly-written guidelines.

Is it any surprise then that the same legislators railing against equity also have no problem exacerbating a teacher vacancy crisis that disproportionately affects Black students and students from families with low incomes?

Sadly, few of us are surprised by this legislature’s racist agenda. However that doesn’t mean we can’t still be disgusted and outraged by it.