Hey there Pat. Can I call you Pat? Well, I’m going to anyway. Governor McCrory just sounds a little bit too formal for you right now. How are you hanging in there?
I know, I know bud. The last two weeks haven’t been all that good for you. Pretty darn rough in fact. HB2 just wasn’t your finest moment. With all the negative, nation-wide attention from companies black-listing our state, you have rightfully been painted in a very negative light. Your slow, sluggish and, let’s admit it, poor response hasn’t helped much either. And now, to make matters even worse, Bruce Springsteen won’t even come play for us, and we love Bruce. I guess, Pat, he was just “Born to Run” (away from you).
But I’m not here to criticize you on your handling of HB2 (shocker, right) because I think plenty of others have already done that for me. No Pat, not at all. I’m here to support you in your recent goal to raise North Carolina’s teacher pay by 5 percent. So, Pat, think of this not as another piece condemning your multiple recent mistakes, but rather as an olive branch trying to let you know how you can begin to make up for them — lucky you.
Let’s begin with the basics. Maybe because of all the flack you’ve been taking on HB2 or in an effort to make yourself look more moderate for November’s election, you announced this much-needed plan. So good on you Pat, regardless of your underlying motives. Good on you for recognizing that an average pay for our state’s teachers of $45,933, just isn’t adequate. Currently, North Carolina ranks 47th in teacher pay behind West Virginia at 46th, and, when even West Virginia is beating you, you know you are doing something wrong. We owe it to our teachers, as well as our students, to ensure that we can give our incredible teachers a living wage. While the 5 percent raise still places North Carolina in the bottom half of the country in average teacher salary and probably isn’t quite enough, it’s still a much-needed move in the right direction.
Yet, just proposing this, Pat, is nowhere near actually implementing it. Oh no, you have a long road ahead of you. But if you want to begin making up for your lackluster proposal as of late, you have to get this teachers’ raise passed. So flex your political muscles, big boy — I know you must have them stored up there somewhere under your governor’s suits despite their recent atrophy — and accomplish this much-needed goal.
Perhaps you should look to the lead of a former and better governor, Jim Hunt, who set a goal of raising teachers’ pay above the national average and met it. Follow in his lead of working across the aisle and making it about teachers not politics and you might have a chance.
Of course you still have to get it through the Senate and House: the same people from your party who overwhelmingly supported HB2. So good luck, only the whole state is watching. It sure would be embarrassing to announce a great new plan only to see your own party stop you from accomplishing it.
With Love,
Logan