Tar-Heel Education: The $4.16 Per Day Pay Raise

Well... I guess North Carolina Governor Mike Easley's heart is in the right place:

North Carolina's average teacher salary is $45,149, which is $3,814 below the national average. Using a room full of teachers and students at a Raleigh elementary school as a backdrop, Easley said the state aimed to raise the state's average teacher salary to $52,266 a year by 2008. That would be about $60 more than what is projected to be the national average that year.

To start, all teachers will get a $750 annual pay increase for the current school year that will begin showing up in their November paychecks.

North Carolina budgets are written in two-year cycles, and Easley said the budget outline shows there should be enough money to pay for the 5 percent increase next year.

The prospects for the 5 percent raises required in the 2007 and 2008 school years are less certain.

Although Easley will remain governor until 2008, all legislators must run for re-election in 2006. A significant shift in the legislature's makeup could make it harder to make good on the promised salary increases.

Of course, the governor is promising those 5% annual raises for future years.

Meanwhile, what about this year? Let's see... if there are 180 teaching days in a year, and a teacher receives a whopping $750 pay hike for this year, that works out to... $4.16 per day. Less taxes.

Y'all don't spend all that new-found wealth in one place! ----------------------------See the latest edition of The Carnival Of Education here, and our latest posts over there.