Tom Oxholm
Every business leader knows that a company is only as good as its employees, but too many assume that because North Carolina’s community colleges and universities are highly regarded and businesses keep relocating here, public K-12 education must be doing well.
Wrong!
Shockingly, only around 30% of 9th graders are at grade level in reading and math exams. In our competitive world, this is unacceptable. How prepared are the graduates your company is hiring really?
While state budgets lack adequate public school funding for teacher salaries and classroom supplies, working- and middle-class taxpayers are subsidizing an ever-expanding number of vouchers for wealthy parents who can already afford to send their children to private school. This upward diversion of resources is morally dubious and economically indefensible.
A key factor in student success is having great teachers in every classroom, and North Carolina lacks that. And the reason is simple: Teacher salaries start at just $41,000 a year, the worst in the Southeast. A teacher with 15 years of experience earns $53,880 a year.
Teachers don’t get raises until years 15 through 24, and can only earn a maximum of $55,950 no matter how long or how hard they work. Are smart, talented, professional employees at your company (or any other company) willing to work a lifetime with little opportunity for advancement? (Some counties even offer extra pay to teachers.)
In 2010, with the Great Recession causing a ballooning budget deficit, state lawmakers cut funding for public school supplies in half. Since then, even as the state has rebounded and created a billion-dollar budget surplus, lawmakers have not restored the funding. Today, the sad reality is that most counties have charity drives to buy basic school supplies for public schools so that low-paid teachers don’t have to buy them for their students.
Given all this, it’s no wonder that enrollment in the state schools that prepare teachers has plummeted by 70 percent over the past two decades. This is a flashing warning signal not just for our schools, but for the future of North Carolina more broadly. Starvation is the worst strategy for survival.
Sober business summit
Last fall, I helped organize a summit of statewide business leaders interested in public education. Organized by the nonpartisan North Carolina Public School Forum, the summit brought together nearly 100 business leaders from 40 counties across the state.
As the facts were presented, most of the attendees were astonished at how poorly our students are performing in elementary, middle, and high school in a competitive world. I believe this is a direct result of the state’s lavish funding on public schools. Attendees were shocked by the chronic teacher shortage, the low salary levels of teachers, the low salaries of principals, and many other educational deficiencies.
About 80% of the conference attendees hadn’t paid much attention to the shortcomings of our public education system, while the remaining 20% were aware of the problems but didn’t know how to solve them.
The first step to improving public education is to face the facts, just as a business does about its goals, requirements, and performance. Then take action and meet the challenges.
The second step is to encourage local and state chambers of commerce to come off the sidelines and advocate for greater investment in public education. Job growth depends on workforce development, and workforce development depends on a strong system of K-12 public education. Chambers of commerce are solely focused on economic development, but K-12 issues clamor for attention.
The third step is to get your state legislators to understand the urgent need for more investment in our public schools, from higher teacher pay to more support staff to adequate classroom supplies. A majority of voters, Republican, Democrat, and Independent, agree that we need to improve the education standards of our nation. The ignorant alternative will not last.
Join the Game
What is more important to business leaders: lowering North Carolina’s already low corporate tax rate further to 2.5% or 0%, or ensuring that all children are in school and can read and write at grade level? Our Legislature should instead raise the corporate tax rate and do whatever it takes to properly educate our students. Our future workforce needs more school days, after-school tutoring, classroom supplies, and better pay for teachers and principals.
We also need closer cooperation between business, educators and elected officials, from the local level to the highest echelons of state political and economic power. Too many government officials and business leaders don’t care about our public schools. Too many local school districts stubbornly shun the experienced advice of business executives. And too many short-sighted chambers of commerce choose to turn a blind eye.
Wake up. Strong public education matters to all of us in North Carolina, including our business leaders. Let’s act before it’s too late.
Oxholm served on the Wake County School Board from 1999 to 2003. He is currently vice president of Knightdale-based Wake Stone Corp. He can be reached at tomoxholm@wakestonecorp.com.
