By Amy Cockerham

Public Ed Works

HALIFAX (May 9, 2025) – School leaders across North Carolina are finding ways to cope with recruiting as the latest report released by the National Education Association found that average teacher pay in the state ranks 43rd in the nation.

Carolyn Mitchell is the Executive Director of Human Resources at Halifax County Schools. She said low statewide pay is one reason the district struggles to find teachers to fill their schools.

Halifax is a rural farming county sitting on Virginia’s border, and Perdue Farms is one of the largest employers there.

“They say the chicken farm pays more than what you all make,” Mitchell said. “That was kind of an eye opener for me.”

Mitchell said it’s no wonder fewer and fewer people are going to college to major in education.

“That’s kind of disheartening,” Mitchell said. “Especially when you go to school, and you spend so much time trying to obtain the education, getting in the debt that people get in.”

In an effort to cope, the school system relies heavily on uncertified teachers to fill the gap.

“98% of our teachers come without teaching experience, or they come without any educational background,” Mitchell said. 

Mitchell said unlicensed teachers have five years to earn their credentials and pass a test. If they aren’t successful, they may just cross over the state line to start over.

“Many of those who left and went to other places, it was because they could not pass the test,” Mitchell said. “They could do well in the classroom, and for whatever reason they may not pass the test.”

Mitchell said Halifax County also brings in international teachers to fill vacancies. They come from India, Colombia, Ghana, the Philippines and Jamaica.

But many of the teachers have temporary visas that allow them to stay for just three years.

“Most of them are really solid teachers, and they have made big differences in the growth of our students,” Mitchell said. “However, as soon as they get acclimated to us and our students get acclimated to them, it’s time to go.”

Granville County Public Schools Superintendent Stan Winborne said his district has more than 80 international teachers in his school district. He said they come from the Philippines, Jamaica, Ghana, Colombia, Honduras, Chile and Australia.

Winborne said when he began about two years ago, the district had about a 12% vacancy rate, missing 50 out of 400 teachers. Luckily, with the implementation of international teachers, the rate is now in the single digits.

Winborne agrees that low teacher pay is one major reason for empty spots.

“Most of our beginning teachers, they have at least one other job, if not two, to support themselves and just have a livable wage,” Winborne said. “It’s very difficult to make $40,000 a year and even consider having a family life. You know, that’s just not going to cut it.”

Winborne said his school system struggles the most with finding teachers in science, math and special education.

“There are zero applicants,” he said. “If we do get an applicant, it will often be someone who has no experience and has not gone through a teacher preparation program.”

In Halifax, the struggle is finding Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers. They’re currently looking for everything from plumbers, farmers to electricians.

“They say, you know, I am an electrician by trade, and there’s no way in the world,” Mitchell said. “The only benefit for them would be to have retirement.”

In the latest teacher pay report, Virginia ranked 26th in the nation for average teacher pay.

Mitchell said teachers and staff can and do cross over to work in nearby Greensville County, Virginia, because they’ll make more.

“The young lady that was in this office as our administrative assistant, she left and went across the line,” Mitchell said. “She was making several, I mean probably $10,000 more, as an administrative assistant.”

Mitchell and Winborne agree legislators should take another look at school staff pay.

“A salary that’s well below the national average, but your standards are well above the national average,” Mitchell said. “They just don’t match.”

Winborne believes if we don’t invest now, there will be impacts in the years to come.

“I think it’s very important that we make public education an absolute priority,” Winborne said.

“These children are the future, the future, of our communities, our society. They are our future citizens, and if we’re not investing in them now, then we will not receive the dividends later on. I mean, and it’s just the right thing to do – they deserve it.”

This is part one of a two-part series diving deeper into the effect low teacher pay is having on school districts across the state.