Public Schools First NC
  • Home
  • About
  • Issues
    • Know the Issues
    • Leandro
    • Resilience
    • Education Budget
    • Segregation
    • Privatizing Public Schools
    • Education Justice
    • School Vouchers
    • Charter Schools
  • Engage
    • Sign Our Petition
    • Voter Information
    • Contact Elected Officials
    • Take Our Survey
    • Education Position Questionnaire
  • Resources
    • Fact Sheets
    • Newsletters
    • Legislative Updates
    • Advocacy Toolkit
    • Research and Resources
  • Events
    • Webinars
    • Film Screenings
    • Conference
  • Audiocast
  • Contact
  • Donate!
  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Effective Public Schools
  • Democracy
  • Letter to the NC General Assembly: I Can No Longer Afford to Teach

Letter to the NC General Assembly: I Can No Longer Afford to Teach

July 29, 2013 Written by admin

A North Carolina teacher shares the sad truth about teacher pay in North Carolina.  We should not treat professional educators (Lindsay has two professional degrees and four certifications) like this.  Here’s her letter:

Dear members of the North Carolina General Assembly,

The language in this letter is blunt because the facts are not pretty. Teaching is my calling, a true vocation, a labor of love, but I can no longer afford to teach.

I moved to North Carolina to teach and to settle in to a place I love. My children were born here; we have no plans to leave. I reassured my family in Michigan, shocked at my paltry pay and health benefits, that North Carolina had an established 200 year history of placing a high value on public education and that things would turn around soon.

When I moved here and began teaching in 2007, $30,000 was a major drop from the $40,000 starting salaries being offered by districts all around me in metro Detroit, but it was fine for a young single woman sharing a house with roommates and paying off student loans. However, over six years later, $31,000 is wholly insufficient to support my family. So insufficient, in fact, that my children qualify for and use Medicaid as their medical insurance, and since there is simply no way to deduct $600 per month from my meager take-home pay in order to include my husband on my health plan, he has gone uninsured. We work opposite shifts to eliminate childcare costs.

 

Read Lindsay Kosmala Furst’s entire letter.

Democracy, Effective Public Schools, Recent News
adequate funding, budget, budget cuts, funding, teacher pay, teacher salary, teachers
Vouchers Gain Ground, Public Education Loses in Final Budget
NC Teachers on Assignment: Looking for Jobs in Other States

Upcoming Events

Jul
21
Thu
2022
7:00 pm Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Jul 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Resilience (film): The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope @ Virtual Events
Join us for this award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope! This powerful movie is a conversation-starter and a perspective-changer. (See more about film here: http://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/) Spanish subtitles are[...]
Aug
11
Thu
2022
7:00 pm Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Aug 11 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Resilience (film): The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope @ Virtual Events
Join us for this award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope! This powerful movie is a conversation-starter and a perspective-changer. (See more about film here: http://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/) Spanish subtitles are[...]
Sep
19
Mon
2022
7:00 pm Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Sep 19 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Resilience (film): The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope @ Virtual Events
Join us for this award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope! This powerful movie is a conversation-starter and a perspective-changer. (See more about film here: http://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/) Spanish subtitles are[...]
Oct
20
Thu
2022
7:00 pm Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Oct 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Resilience (film): The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope @ Virtual Events
Join us for this award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope! This powerful movie is a conversation-starter and a perspective-changer. (See more about film here: http://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/) Spanish subtitles are[...]
Nov
17
Thu
2022
7:00 pm Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Resilience (film): The Biology o... @ Virtual Events
Nov 17 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Resilience (film): The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope @ Virtual Events
Join us for this award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope! This powerful movie is a conversation-starter and a perspective-changer. (See more about film here: http://kpjrfilms.co/resilience/) Spanish subtitles are[...]
View Calendar
Add
  • Add to Timely Calendar
  • Add to Google
  • Add to Outlook
  • Add to Apple Calendar
  • Add to other calendar
  • Export to XML

Tweets by PS1NC

Search

Public Schools First NC  •  PO Box 37832 Raleigh, NC 27627