RALEIGH (May 1, 2026) – Thousands of North Carolina teachers made a lot of noise in Raleigh on Friday.
The question is whether they made a difference.
Teachers came from Halifax County, from Buncombe, from Mecklenburg, Forsyth, Guilford, Chatham and Johnston, asking for better pay – and even more, respect from the legislature in a state that now ranks 46th in average teacher pay.1
More than 20 school districts that account for more than half the state’s 1.5 million public school students cancelled classes for the day. And teachers marched from behind the Legislative Building, around the State Capitol and back.
SHANA RICHARDS, a counselor at Guilford Early College on the campus of N.C. A&T State University, said that it’s about her students.
“We tell them to dream big, and dream big they do. But our state does not invest in their dreams,” she said.
Richards lamented the teachers she’s known who have left the profession.
“They had to make a choice and leave, so they could make a livable wage,” she said.
“This is a statewide crisis,” she said. “Our students are not asking for too much – they are asking for what they are owed.”
Daniel Webb, a custodian at a New Hanover County middle school, riffed on saying he is tired in his job.
“I am tired … of seeing good teachers leave,” he said. “I am tired of having to do the work of three custodians and getting paid for one.” Two custodian positions at his school remain vacant, he explained.
MEGAN HILL, an elementary arts teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, quit her job in November.
“I left in November because I was so burned out. I was so down in October that my principal asked me to bring ‘happy me’ back,” she said.
Yet Hill still made the trip to Raleigh for the rally and march.
“I have to show up because teachers are leaving for the same reasons I did,” she said.
She wore a sandwich board that said on the front: “What’s the difference between a teacher and a pizza?”
And on the back: “A pizza can feed a family of four.”
@publicedworks Thousands of educators marched on Raleigh this past Friday to advocate for better pay and school funding. Legislators, it’s time to step up for our teachers! #NCed
DESPITE THE SYMBOLISM of May Day with the labor movement, the march landed on a Friday, when legislators rarely have session. So only a handful of legislators – mostly Wake County Democrats – were on hand for it.
One Republican – Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, who defeated Senate leader Phil Berger by 23 votes in his Rockingham-Guilford district in the March primary – was on hand for the rally and appeared to be listening (not talking) to teachers.
“We don’t need to be last in the Southeast,” Page told the News & Observer of Raleigh. “We need to be first. We’re first in flight. We need to be first in education.”2
BUT REPORTERS described Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall as “dismissive” of the march.3
“I don’t think there’s any question, everybody is in agreement, to the extent that we have the capacity, we need to work on paying teachers more and funding education at a higher level,” Berger told The News & Observer.4
“Memo to Sen. Berger: ‘Capacity’ would be greater instantly if not for the GOP’s obsession with corporate tax breaks and its profligate spending on vouchers,” opined the Greensboro News & Record.5
Speakers repeatedly emphasized that the march was not the end of the push to raise teacher pay and improve our public schools – it will take sustained effort.
WHAT PART of 50th – 50th – in funding effort does our state Senate not get?6 We have the capability to further fund public schools – we simply don’t.
What part of 46th in average teacher pay do you not get?
What part of 46th in funding per student do you not get?
And what part of any of this do North Carolina voters not get?
You have the opportunity in November to do something about it.
Do it.
[1] https://www.wunc.org/education/2026-04-27/nc-falls-46th-teacher-pay-national-ranking; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article315546843.html.
[2] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article315598974.html.
[3] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article315565779.html; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article315570845.html; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article315598974.html.
[4] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article315565779.html.
[5] https://greensboro.com/opinion/editorial/article_d0571a73-cebd-4ce5-9129-e01515963ae0.html.
[6] https://edlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Making-the-Grade-2025.pdf.
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