In July, Gov. Pat McCrory signed a $20.6 billion budget that creates several changes in K-12 public education that former, current and future education students should keep in mind. 

“We have to be realistic about the situation that teachers are currently facing,” said Robert Smith, professor at the Watson School of Education.  “You can’t hide that from them.”

The new budget denies pay increases for teachers with advanced education, cuts funding for some programs while increasing allocations toward others and puts more emphasis on standardized testing, among other things. 

Having recently earned her master’s in education at UNC Wilmington, Arlene Johnson is one new teacher who will contend with the recent budget cuts in state education. However, the cuts don’t dissuade her commitment to being an educator. Johnson will teach English and is certified to teach grades 6-12.  

Johnson works part-time as a customer service rep at Harris Teeter. Considering the low starting salary, it’s not uncommon for new teachers to take up a second job to support themselves. 

“I am intrinsically motivated to teach–it feels natural,” Johnson said. “It has given me purpose. I cannot pinpoint a single thing that drives me, but here are a few: love of knowledge, youthful naivety (I still believe I can change the world), I’m not bad at it.”

Johnson grew up in a small town where she had “limited access to the world around her.” During her early years of education, she encountered the few teachers that instilled in her a thirst to learn and challenge herself. 

“These teachers sparked something in me that I cannot explain as anything other than an insatiable hunger for knowledge,” Johnson said. 

Her innate love for learning and academic drive served as the foundations for her becoming a teacher. Likewise, it was important for Johnson to acquire a master’s degree.

Despite her advanced education, Johnson—like many other new teachers—won’t receive the 10 percent pay raise for earning a master’s. Instead, she will have to raise her student’s scores to earn extra cash.

While the opportunity to accrue a pay raise remains, Johnson explained that state government’s infatuation with test scores is the real issue. 

“Test-centered education limits teachers and limits students,” Johnson said. “But it’s easy and it makes test makers a great deal of money. These tests promote the dominant culture, deeming those without familiarity as ‘inadequate.'”

Johnson also said that test scores fail to reflect critical thinking skills and the core of education in favor of a battery of multiple choice responses.  

“Merit is not standardized, there are not standardized students to take these standardized tests,” Johnson said.

“Test scores are only one possible measure of learning,” professor Smith said. 

Smith recently wrote an editorial detailing the N.C. education dilemma, which appeared in theStarNews. He commented on the problems that N.C. teachers face with increasing cuts to education. But it is not just cuts to their budget and salaries, it is also the increasing load of accountability that is heaped on teachers—which limits their time and energy for real teaching, according to Smith.

“If there are ways by which they’re going to save money, then they’re going to pursue those,” Smith said. “[From] cutting the Teaching Fellows program, increasing class sizes, cutting teaching assistants, proposing to stop paying for teachers who receive advanced degrees. It’s all largely driven by ways to save money.” 

Additionally, Smith said the Watson School of Education has witnessed a decrease in many teaching enrollment programs. One notable program that was directly affected by budget cuts was Teaching Fellows. 

Teaching Fellows was designed to identify junior or senior high-school students as promising educator material. Yet the budget eliminated funding for Teacher Fellows and instead allocates money to Teach for America by fiscal year 2014-2015.

“So that certainly removed a group that committed themselves early on to becoming teachers,” Smith said.

Despite the cuts, plenty of students, like Johnson, commit themselves to earn their master’s. It’s not necessarily about the pay raise as it as about honing their professional skills to utilize them effectively in the classroom, according to Johnson.  Though, there seems to be a lack of governmental support for teachers that want to continue their academic and learning preparation, Smith explained.  

“Part of their expectations is that teachers will instill a general love for learning [in students],” Smith said. “It’s sort of ironic to say we expect teachers to do that, but we’re not going to pay teachers themselves for demonstrating an overall love for learning for their own professional qualifications.”

“It seems that people in the education profession are constantly expected to do more with less,” Johnson said.

For Smith, there’s more to teaching his students than planning academic curriculums. Smith said he must be frank with them about the obstacles they will encounter during their careers.

He argued that it is important for teachers to temper their voice and inform the public about the state’s decisions that may diminish the local education scene. There is nothing more important than “having a great teacher.” 

“Measuring teacher merit is not easy, and this proposal looks for an easy, cheap way to check a box without making any real changes,” Johnson said.