From the North Carolina teacher's salary schedule:
2008-2009
Teacher with master's after 25 years....$52,570 with annual increases to $57,810 at 31+ years. Pretty simple and no complaints.
2017-2018
Teacher with Master's after 25 years....$51,300 and this is it until retirement whenever that might be. That's the same pay scale as a teacher with a bachelor's degree. The GOP legislature (with a veto-proof majority) tried to strip masters pay from
all teachers including those who had been on the masters schedule for years but the court ruled that was unconstitutional. Those teachers who earned their masters degree by August 2013 now get $56,430 at 25 years with no change until retirement. If you got your masters degree after that...too bad.
Teachers also once got a longevity bonus every year that equaled a percentage of their salary....4.5% at 25+ years....that would equal about $2,600 for a teacher at the top of the pay scale. The GOP state legislature (remember that veto-proof majority?) did away with that. Of course, they still allow bonuses to their staffs that can hit 19%. So...yeah...a
staffer with 25+ years making $51,300 could get a bonus on top of that of nearly $10K....'cause we need to pay to keep the best you know.
Oh...and the budget for supplies...things like, you know, books and shit...they cut that from $68/student to $31/student (that's adjusted for inflation). Teachers at my school are using class sets of ten year old textbooks that are duct taped together There are no textbooks for students to take home.
So, yes, I'm complaining about teacher pay here and to those who have an issue with that, you can kindly shove it...sideways.