I’m just kidding.  There is nothing bizarre about “State Board of Education considers charters, teacher pay and evaluation” by Lindsay Wagner.  (As far as I know, she is the new education reporter at N.C. Policy Watch, not The Bionic Woman.)

Anyway, her article is pretty informative. Unfortunately, it omits a few pieces of critical information.  For example, it’s true that Alexis Schauss, director of school business for the NC Department of Public Instruction, presented “statistics on the state of teacher pay in North Carolina.”  But Wagner does not mention how much it would cost the state to increase pay for teachers, a point highlighted by Schauss during her presentation.  According to Schauss,

  • There are approx. 82,000 state funded teachers and an additional 13,000 paid from other sources.
  • A step increase is 1.76% or $83.4m for licensed personnel.
  • It would take approximately $420m to place all teachers & Instructional support on the step they would have been on.

Anemic revenue projections suggest that raising teacher pay statewide would require a sizable tax increase.  Lefties should not be afraid to say so.  In fact, I encourage them to add up all of the items on their wish lists and identify the tax increases needed to make it happen.

(Ladies and gentlemen, my bizarre rendition of a hit song by Salt-n-Pepa!)

Let’s talk about tax ba-by;

Let’s talk about you and me;

Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may-be;

Let’s talk about tax.  Let’s talk about tax.  Let’s talk about tax.

Back to the issue at hand.  Schauss did not discuss the politics of the issue directly.  But she used 2008 at her point of reference.  That year, the Democrats controlled the executive and legislative branches.  Republicans did not take control of the NC General Assembly until 2010.