In the midst of a tense environment between teachers and politicians, Gov. Pat McCrory’s new plans for a merit-based teacher pay system has some educators skeptical.
McCrory introduced his initiative at a speech on Monday during the Holshouser Legislators Retreat in Greensboro.
“They just feel like they’re walked over,” McCrory said in the speech. “A lot of teachers feel like they’re taken for granted.”
A key part of McCrory’s plan includes paying mathematics and science teachers more to encourage college graduates to become K-12 teachers rather than take higher-paid jobs in other fields.
But Rodney Ellis, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, said singling out teachers in a specific subject area is not an effective way to promote an improved education system.
“I don’t know of any merit-based system that has proved effective,” he said.
Ellis said a teacher in any subject is a part of an interdisciplinary community of teachers that work together, and paying a teacher of one subject more than a teacher of another makes this difficult.
More details of McCrory’s plans will be released in coming weeks.
And McCrory said there are other problems confronting the K-12 system.