Dr. Mary Ann Wolf, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, published an interesting article in the Neuse News. She began by citing two school administrators who said they could not get applicants for their vacant teaching positions.

“Think about that,” she wrote. “If they do not find qualified replacements or come up with alternative solutions, students will arrive on the first day of school Aug. 29 in classrooms without teachers.”

I doubt most parents understand just how critical the teacher shortage is in North Carolina – and across the nation. As Dr. Wolf points out, North Carolina’s teacher preparation programs produce 50 percent fewer teachers than they did a decade ago. Many new teachers throw in the towel after just two or three years and find a job in some other field.

I have a vested interest in education in this state. I dedicated more than 37 years teaching middle and high students. I spent 30 years teaching part-time at the college level. In addition, of my four children and their four spouses, five are engaged in education – six if I count my oldest daughter Sara, who teaches clinical nursing classes for East Carolina.

Why is attracting teachers so difficult? One reason is low salaries. I worked with a young woman at Farmville Central who left North Carolina and was hired to teach in Virginia. By changing states, she received a $14,000 a year raise.

Base starting salaries for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience stood at $35,460 for the 2020-2021 school year, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. For the 2022-2023 school year, according to DPI figures, that base salary increased by 1.3 percent – or $46 per month.

Most citizens outside education do not realize the dry spell veteran teachers face once they complete their 14th year of service. According to the 2022-2023 DPI pay scale, once the teacher hits 15 years, he or she will be compensated $5,131 per month (or $51,310 per year over the 10-month contract) with no promise of another raise until the teacher completes year 24. For year 25, according to the salary schedule I have cited, the teacher moves up to $5,336 per month.

In addition to low pay, the legislature has pared away benefits that once attracted people to education. When I first became a state teacher, I was guaranteed a vested pension and vested healthcare after retirement. The pension plan is still in place. In fact, North Carolina has one of the top three most solvent plans in the United States – but the health benefit has eroded.

In 2007, the health care provision changed to require 20 years of creditable service and payment into the retirement system for retirement health care coverage. The benefits package now provides no healthcare during retirement for teachers and state employees hired in 2021 and after.

Even when I was working as a teacher, the state unilaterally changed my healthcare coverage from an 80/20 plan in force when I began to a 70/30 plan that the Masters of Doublespeak called “Traditional.” For a premium, I could get the 80/20 “Enhanced” plan.

Besides the low pay and retirement benefits erosion, another factor makes recruiting teachers challenging: Discipline in schools has eroded. When a student acts out, the first question seems to be, “What did the teacher do to provoke the outburst?”

Increasingly, the responsibility of students to control their behavior diminishes, and the expectation that teachers will somehow work miracles with students who are disrespectful, rebellious, and unruly grows year by year.

When I was teaching, I often encouraged promising students to become teachers. I cannot tell you how many current teachers tell me they would never encourage a student to go into the field. Poor pay, eroding benefits, and lack of respect are key factors that keep students from pursuing careers as teachers.

At some point, the legislature must decide whether it wants swelling classrooms and/or untrained and undertrained teachers or qualified teachers in every classroom.

Maybe they should review the state motto: “To Be Rather Than to Seem.” Do we want to seem to have an educational system with excellent teachers – or do we want to be a state that truly has that type of system?

Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News.  You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.