By Douglas Shackelford and Paul Fulton
CHAPEL HILL (December 3, 2025) – Once again, for the second time in seven years, the NC General Assembly has failed to pass a budget.1 Our state stands alone as the only one in the country unable to complete its most basic responsibility.
While every other state managed to fund its schools, its workforce and its essential services, Raleigh gridlocked itself into failure.
And ordinary North Carolinians – especially our teachers – will pay the price.
Despite ongoing inflation and rising costs in every corner of life, legislators refused to approve raises for teachers and other state employees. The very people who keep our schools and public services running – who buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets, who keep prisons secure, who maintain our roads and safeguard our communities – will see their purchasing power shrink yet again.
The legislature knows full well that our state employees are underpaid.2
This year, the House offered an average increase in teacher pay of 8.7% over two years and starting teacher pay of $50,000 next year. The Democratic governor applauded it and 27 Democrats voted for it.
The Senate, meanwhile, offered teachers a 3.3% raise and a $3,000 bonus over two years.3
Both chambers admitted teachers deserve more. But even with broad agreement that salaries must rise, lawmakers – particularly those in the Senate4 – still failed to do the one thing needed to deliver those raises: pass a budget.
As a result, every teacher and every state worker in North Carolina will get nothing. Yet they will see an increase in health insurance costs.5 That amounts to a pay cut – there might be some empty stockings this Christmas.
For teachers, the impact is especially damaging. Starting teacher pay here is far below our neighbors to the south, and even experienced teachers make thousands less than their national peers. Our average teacher salary ranks near the bottom of the country.
We are losing ground, not gaining it.
But the deeper problem is not just paychecks – it’s priorities. When you divide North Carolina’s K–12 spending by our state’s gross domestic product, we rank 49th.6 That means that even with one of the strongest economies in the country, we invest among the least in our public schools. By almost any statistic, we rank near the bottom in the South.
We spend less because our leaders choose to spend less.
The failure to pass a budget cements that choice. It sends a message not just to current teachers, but to the next generation of bright young North Carolinians who might consider entering the profession: Go somewhere else.7
Go where your work is valued, where your pay keeps up with inflation, where education is treated as the foundation of the future rather than an afterthought.
And who ultimately pays the price? Our children.
A state that refuses to invest in education cannot expect to compete economically, attract employers or fulfill its constitutional promise of a “sound basic education” for every child.
We cannot keep underfunding our schools and then pretend to be surprised when classrooms lack teachers, when turnover spikes and when students fall further behind.
What’s wrong with legislators in Raleigh? The answer is simple: their priorities are not North Carolina’s priorities.
If lawmakers want to prove otherwise, they can start by doing their job – passing a budget – and making long-overdue investments in the people who make our state run. Our teachers, our public workers, our students and our future deserve nothing less.
Douglas Shackelford and Paul Fulton are former Deans of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. This essay is co-signed by Public Ed Works board members Emma Battle, Jim Deal, William Dudley, Jennie Hayman, Ray F. Peck, Jr., King Prather, John Tate, and John Wester,
1 https://sites.ncleg.gov/library/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/03/BudgetBillHistory.pdf.
2 https://publicedworks.org/2025/05/nc-teacher-pay-now-ranks-43rd/.
3 https://publicedworks.org/2025/07/house-budget-is-better-for-our-teachers-and-kids/.
4 https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article313327891.html.
5 https://www.wral.com/story/nc-state-health-plan-leaders-vote-to-raise-health-insurance-premiums-on-state-workers/22119719/; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article312683081.html.
6 https://edlawcenter.org/research/making-the-grade-2024/.
7 https://publicedworks.org/2025/11/educators-exit-nc-for-better-pay/.
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