Raleigh, NC - The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) released the following statement today in response to the passage of the state budget.
"For public school educators, this budget tries to buy our silence while trading away our future," said Christina Cole, NCAE President. "This school year, it hands working teachers a few hundred more dollars a month and hands billionaires and corporations millions of dollars every year, forever. This budget cuts the corporate tax rate once again, marching toward zero corporate taxes by 2030. Short-term crumbs for educators, long-term windfalls for corporations. After nearly three years without a state budget, educators need more — especially our veteran educators whose steps are frozen from years 15 to 24, and whose raises don't even keep pace with inflation."
"And it's not just a bad trade — it's a trade we can't afford. Every dollar signed away in permanent corporate tax cuts is a dollar that won't be there for the next teacher pay raise, the next special education classroom, or the next aging school building in need of repair. Legislators aren't just underpaying educators this school year. They're locking in the underfunding of public schools every year after it.
Instead of prioritizing billionaires and corporations, we need a budget that puts kids first. North Carolina's students and educators deserve a budget that invests in them — not one that trades their future for a corporate tax break."
