Raleigh, NC - A newly released study by personal finance company WalletHub ranks North Carolina among the lowest-ranked states in the nation for teachers. The “2026 Best & Worst States for Teachers” report ranks North Carolina 44th in the nation, behind all neighboring states and as the lowest-ranked state in the Southeast.
The WalletHub report compares all 50 states and the District of Columbia across two broad categories: opportunity and competition, and academic and work environment. Together, those categories incorporate 24 metrics, including average teacher salary, income growth potential and per-pupil spending. North Carolina ranks 38th in opportunity and competition and 36th in academic and work environment, according to the report. Both rankings place North Carolina behind its neighboring states.
Nationally, teachers salaries have not kept pace with inflation and when factored in, educators are making 5% less than they did a decade ago. This is reflected in North Carolina where raises from a delayed state budget failed to provide a meaningful financial boost to teachers, especially veteran educators. According to WalletHub, states that make teaching careers more rewarding tend to:
- Compensate educators well
- Invest heavily in educational resources
- Pass laws that improve school-system quality
- Provide supportive conditions that lead to low turnover.
North Carolina fails to do nearly all of these things, ranking towards the bottom in educator pay and in educational funding effort. The lack of investment to provide support for educators is reflected in a state budget that shuns veteran educators, freezing their pay for nearly 10 years, and a rising teacher attrition rate of more than 10%.
These things are a direct reflection of legislative priorities enacted by the General Assembly, who have chosen for decades now to disinvest in North Carolina’s public schools and other public services and instead provide multi-billion dollar tax breaks for corporations, wealthy individuals, and unaccountable private schools that siphon away public dollars from public schools.
“North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school children and the educators who serve them are not a priority for North Carolina’s General Assembly," said NCAE President Christina Cole. "Legislators refuse to put kids first. This has been made clear here at home, where we have seen firsthand how their fiscal neglect and ill-informed policies are impacting our children, and it has been reflected across the nation as ranking after ranking places North Carolina near the bottom when it comes to supporting our children and educators and adequately funding our public schools.
This continued disinvestment in our schools, our educators and our children is a monumental failure—not only to them, but all North Carolinians.”
