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Fact Checking North Carolina Political Ads Touting Teacher Pay Raises

This ad features Guilford County Republican Trudy Wade who is running for re-election for the North Carolina Senate.

As election season kicks into high gear, more and more commercials are flooding the airwaves. In North Carolina, education is taking center stage. Several Republican lawmakers are featured in TV and print ads that highlight recent pay raises for teachers. But a few of the claims are raising questions among educators. 

For example, this prime time ad featuring Republican lawmaker Trudy Wade who is running for re-election in the North Carolina Senate. It's paid for by Carolina Partnership For Reform. The ad has been running during the Olympics and getting a lot of attention.

The ad claims that "Trudy Wade voted to raise teacher pay by over 15 percent, so for the first time our teachers make over $50,000 a year.” 

When teacher Rachel Scott of Greensboro heard that figure, she balked. She went on Facebook and found many of her friends are equally incredulous over the claim.

“That message went into teachers homes through their televisions and so they're receiving a false perspective of what people bring home. It's simply not true," says Scott.

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North Carolina 2016 Teacher Salary Schedule (NC Department of Instruction)

Under the new budget, Republican lawmakers say the average teacher pay increase will be 4.7 percent, or $50,000 a year.

But is that really the case? Education policy experts say it depends on how you look at it.

“I would say this is between mostly true and half true,” says Sara Dahill-Brown, a political science professor at Wake Forest University, adding that the key word here is average.

“That average includes the state's contributions to teacher salaries and it includes local supplements that are paid by most counties, although there are some counties in North Carolina that can't afford the local supplements.”

Dahill-Brown calls the $50,000 a year salary an optimistic estimate, and one that most won't be getting anytime soon. It's based on the idea that all teachers will stay in North Carolina, getting a little bit more in their paycheck every year until they hit a cap. But Dahill-Brown says that assumption isn't based in reality.

“Many teachers will leave and teachers who will leave will be at the higher end of the pay scale who will be retiring. Many of the teachers coming in and replacing will be early career teachers who are going to be earning at the lower end of the salary schedule,” says Dahill-Brown. “The real average is probably going to be lower.”

The North Carolina Association of Educators estimates around 20 percent of teachers are approaching retirement. NCAE president Mark Jewell says the new pay raises aren't doing enough to recruit and maintain quality teachers.

“When we have Rock Hill, South Carolina doing job fairs to recruit our teachers in Charlotte, that's a problem. When we have substitute teachers for three years in Eastern North Carolina, that's a problem,” says Jewell. “We have 136 positions that need to be filled in Robeson County and school starts next week.”

Jewell says policy changes like removing salary bumps for master's pay make it even harder. He wants North Carolina to be more in line with the national average, which is around $58,000 a year.

But Governor Pat McCrory and other Republicans say this is just a starting point.

McCrory has made education a cornerstone in his re-election campaign. In addition to the pay raises, he announced other investments into North Carolina schools when he signed the new budget in July.

If there's one thing both sides agree on right now, it's that more work needs to be done.

*Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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