With elections over, North Carolina teachers demand change

Though recently elected Gov. Pat McCrory won the North Carolina gubernatorial election by a significant margin, citizens’ reactions to the Republican governor’s predicted policy changes in education are less cohesive.

For educators, the election brought education to the forefront of conversation in North Carolina, which ranked in the bottom 10 states for per pupil spending in the 2011-2012 school year.

Amid the October election chaos, Kris Nielsen, a former teacher in Monroe, N.C., quit his job. Neilson, in a blog post said that he quit because: “I refuse to watch my family struggle financially as I work in a job to which I have invested 6 long years of my life in preparation."  

A debate on Oct. 3 between past gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton and Gov. McCrory foreshadowed the transition from a Democratic to Republican governor through his approach to education policy. McCrory, who supported the 2011-2012 education budget cuts, said that there needs to be a focus on achieving results, rather than increasing the budget.

“We’re… pouring money into a broken system,” McCrory said in the debate.

Nielsen, who stated that he “will not spend another day under the expectations" that he must "prepare every student for the increasing numbers of meaningless tests,” became the voice of hordes of teachers unhappy with the current system.  The blog post went viral, receiving over 130,000 views in a week, according to the blog’s author, Diane Ravitch. 

“It spoke to the frustrations that many are feeling,” said Ravitch, via email.  “What politicians are calling reform is not improving education and is driving away teachers.”

Nielsen said that the letter has caused an outpouring of support from his community. 

“So many teachers and parents have reached out and told me they appreciated me showing the world how our system really is,” Nielsen said. 

 Nielsen said that, despite a few comments of “it’s a job; get used to it,” teachers across the state and nation say that they have the inspiration to fight for change.

“Whether it’s by resigning or speaking up, people are feeling motivated to change this system,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen’s post displayed discontent with teachers’ salaries, lack of benefits, and arbitrary standardized testing formats.  The post is also addressed to June Atkinson, newly re-elected state superintendent of public instruction.

Atkinson’s election platform included raising North Carolina teachers’ base pay, in addition to awarding performance-based raises. According to a lobbyist report  of the N.C. House Education Oversight Committee meeting in October, Atkinson stated that the number one priority for the next fiscal year’s budget would be eliminating remaining discretionary cuts. Merit-based pay plans would likely be incorporated into the final budget provisions.

Atkinson was unavailable to comment.  However, with many educators displaying vocal opposition to any leadership that does not meet the needs of themselves or their students, the newly elected and re-elected officials must consider the requests of their constituency.