North Carolina: Low pay forces teacher of the year candidate to quit

[illegaloperation]

BOILING SPRING LAKES, NC (WWAY) -- We’re just weeks away from the start of school and the Brunswick County school system is losing one of its top educators.

Richie Brown is leaving his post at South Brunswick High School for a job in the private sector, but says he is worried that more of his former colleagues may soon follow if there isn’t a change in the bottom line.

"I was about to be a seventh-year teacher, and I would be paid the same as I was as a second-year teacher,” said Richie Brown. “When you get into education you know you're not going to become a millionaire. I wasn't getting into this because of the money, but you still expect to be compensated fairly"

Brown and his wife Kristina, who is also a teacher, were trying to have another child and realized that it was going to be extremely difficult on them financially.

To be able to afford his expanding family Richie says he was forced to look for another job outside of education.

"I will definitely miss being able to teach those kids but one thing I'm looking forward to is being compensated fairly for one and having a chance to move up in the world,” said Brown. “I can actually go up in this company and get promotions every year and get raises every year."

The Brunswick County Board of Education isn’t taking the loss of one of its top educators lightly.

"Some of our best and brightest teachers simply cannot afford to remain in the classroom,” said Charlie Miller, Chairman of the Brunswick County Board of Education. “Many of the teachers leaving are those who since entering the profession are making the same salary they did 6-8 years ago. The loss of these teachers absolutely impacts the classroom. Serious consideration must be given as to how we can stop this epidemic."

Brown says there is an easy solution to keep teachers from following his lead and that's for school systems to pay more, but he knows that's not possible without more support from the state and federal levels.

Source: http://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/08/09/only-3-low-pay-forces-teacher-of-the-year-candidate-to-quit

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. I'm just waiting for the educational assasins to step up and

convince us that teachers live a comfortable lifestyle and that this guy is just ungratefully whining.

[cstanleytech]

2. Beats retail working for walmart of one of the big grocery chains though

as even full time those jobs pay dirt usually in retail (unless you are upper management) compared to what a teacher makes in North Carolina according to http://www.teacherportal.com/salary/North-Carolina-teacher-salary but in this teachers case I can understand why he left if hes not had a raise in that long of a period it only makes sense to move on and find a better paying position.

[dsc]

3. I would sincerely hope people with educations

costing years of time, thousands of dollars, and requiring massive work to obtain would make more than those who work in retail who have no education past high school.

[cstanleytech]

6. Hmm still alot of those working in retail shouldnt be forced to endure poverty level wages either

nor should the retail stores (like walmart) be forcing their workers to go onto welfare because the company doesnt want to pay them a decent wage that can provide them with the essentials of food, shelter and basic healthcare.

[dsc]

10. I agree with that

but there is still a decent gap between walmart wages and teaching. I think both groups are underpaid.

[cstanleytech]

11. " I think both groups are underpaid." Agreed.

[Thav]

4. That's an easy one to fix.

More budget cuts! Teachers should be paid the equivalent of 35 cents an hour, those public fund moochers!

more than you'll ever know...

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. De-funding schools is a plan to privatize them. Contrast: $1 trillion per year is spent on the

surveillance state, OUR tax dollars:

Meet the Contractors Turning America's Police Into a Paramilitary Force
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12525281

Priorities.

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Thanks, "Race To The Top."

Thanks, BO.

[busterbrown]

8. Who gives a shit about Richie and his need for more dough.

He’s got plenty for as little as he works...Summers off, vacations , benefits etc, etc, etc...

Somewhere this is going trough someone’s mind... Perhaps half of N.C.’s population..

[CTyankee]

12. I say good for them! They are educating our CHIDREN, fer god's sake!

Shouldn't they get decent benefits? Why is this idea strange to you?

[busterbrown]

13. My sarcasm isn’t working very well lately.

Better try a new approach!!

[CTyankee]

14. oops! Sorry. I plead heat related cluelessness!

Or something...

[dmosh42]

9. Tax breaks for rich and corporations have highest priority here in NC.

Education doesn't have much priority. We just cut the money for the unemployed, so we don't give a shit about them either.

[Supersedeas]

15. and the students are left with the hangers-on and left-overs