Issue Position: Education
Issue Position
As Governor, I will rebuild our public education system where we are currently falling short and expand on those educational systems that we're doing right. This plan will be based on data and evidence of what works, not on ideology.
The very first thing that we all should do is treat our public school teachers with dignity and respect. In recent years, our teachers have been treated as political pawns and not as professional educators. Our public school teachers are the only PROFESSION intricately involved in our lives and our children's lives for at least twelve straight years. The significant importance of public school teachers in our children's lives and our state's success stands without question.
Therefore, it should also go without question that our teachers deserve to be paid in a manner that reflects their crucial importance to all of us and the very fabric of our state's future. We do not expect mediocrity for our children's education and, therefore, we should not expect mediocrity for our public school teachers' pay. That is why I, as Governor, will fight that teachers get paid ABOVE the national average and not accept anything less.
Starting pay for our teachers should also be ABOVE the national average and move ahead of Virginia and South Carolina.
Most importantly, I will not use public school teachers' dire need for pay raises and security to serve as a way to divide our teachers. Such political gamesmanship and political strategies are devised to weaken the commonality of effort and purpose of North Carolina's public school teachers as a whole. Public school teachers' tenure should remain as an incentive for employment and not get taken away. Tenure protects teachers from unfair and political dismissals through the fair and required use of a due process hearing. It does not guarantee one a job for life.
In short, North Carolina's public school teachers deserve our sincere respect and support and should be treated as the true professionals that they are.
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