At last week’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education meeting, CMS officials announced proposed $15,000 bonuses “for teachers who have demonstrated the ability to move the needle in terms of student outcomes.” However, the bonus would be paid to just 32 teachers who have specifically moved that needle in Math I classes at Title I schools.
There are many other teachers among CMS’s more than 9,000 who are moving the needle in terms of student outcomes every single day. None of them will be considered for an eye-popping bonus they could use to erase debt, put a downpayment on a new house, or quit their second job in order to have more time with their families.
Teachers in North Carolina are facing tremendous challenges right now. In the chaotic Donald Trump economy, prices are skyrocketing, and our new state treasurer has promised “uncomfortable things” for state employees including sizable increases in health insurance premiums. Although educators may receive local or state salary raises in upcoming budgets, it seems all but certain they will be swallowed up by the escalating cost of living…