School districts across rural southeastern North Carolina saw lower teacher attrition rates in 2024 than in recent years, but vacancies continued to increase, state data shows.
Fewer teachers left the profession in Bladen, Columbus, Robeson and Scotland counties compared to the 2022-2023 school year, mirroring statewide trends, according to the State of the Teaching Profession report released April 2 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The statewide teacher attrition rate for the 2023-2024 school year was 9.9%, down from 11.5% the prior year but still above pre-pandemic levels.
Bladen County Schools, Public Schools of Robeson County and Whiteville City Schools had attrition rates below the statewide average for the 2023-2024 school year, data shows. Bladen County Schools had the lowest attrition rate in the region at 6.9%—a loss of 17 teachers and a 2-point decrease from the previous year.
Columbus County Schools and Scotland County Schools both had higher teacher attrition rates than the statewide rate. Columbus County saw the highest attrition increase in the region, losing 38 teachers, up 4 percentage points from the previous year to 11.3%.
Attrition rates are even higher for teachers in their first three years of the profession, at about 13% across the state.
“While the report shows improvement in the percentage of teachers staying compared to prior years, there are still far too many teachers leaving the profession,” North Carolina Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green said in a press release. “We need to do a much better job of keeping them in the classroom once they are hired.”
About 52% of teachers who left North Carolina public schools cited “personal reasons.” According to the 2024 Teacher Working Conditions Survey, 6% of teachers and other school staff statewide planned to leave the education field. According to the survey, teachers cited increasing underappreciation for their work and a lack of voice in their schools’ decision-making process.
The statewide teacher vacancy rate rose for the third straight year, hitting a record high of 7,141 positions, up 19% from the year before. Nearly 3,000 of those vacancies are in core classes of math, English, science and social studies.
In the 2021-2022 school year, the state broadened the definition of vacancy to include long-term substitutes and teachers who don’t have enough college credits to pursue a long-term North Carolina teaching license. So, data from prior years can’t be fairly compared, according to Tom Tomberlin, senior director of educator preparation, licensure and performance at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“Everyone wants a fully licensed teacher in every classroom in the state of North Carolina, so the current vacancy rate tells us how far we are from that,” Tomberlin said.
In the Border Belt, only Columbus County Schools had a vacancy rate below the state average, at 3.9%, or 13 vacancies on the 40th day of school last fall—a slight increase of less than 1% from the previous year.
Rural southeastern North Carolina consistently has some of the highest vacancy rates in the state, the Border Belt Independent previously reported. Public Schools of Robeson County had the highest vacancy rate in the region at 15.7%, or 222 vacancies on the 40th day of school in fall of 2023—a 6-point increase from the previous year. The district had the sixth most vacancies in the state, behind only urban districts like Mecklenburg and Wake counties. Most of those vacancies were for elementary school teachers and teachers for students with special needs.
A 2024 report by the National Education Association showed teachers in North Carolina have some of the lowest starting salaries in the country, with the state ranking 42nd for starting pay at $40,136 and 38th for overall teacher pay.
Teachers who left the profession in rural southeastern North Carolina previously told the Border Belt Independent that the factors leading them to question whether to stay in education were systemic forces beyond their control, like lack of funding.
Funding concerns may soon be heightened as President Donald Trump aims to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Statewide, 70.5% of federal funds were used to pay school employees’ salaries and benefits, according to a budget document from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Those funding gaps could potentially be filled by increased state spending in education. Under the proposed budget by the North Carolina Senate this week, teachers would receive a $3,000 bonus and a 2% to 3% pay raise over two years.
The proposed annual salary would be $41,510 for teachers with no experience and $50,724 per year to teachers with one year of experience, with increases each year of about $100 per month until a teacher reaches 25 years. The base salary would be supplemented by county governments.
Gov. Josh Stein’s proposed budget also included higher teacher salaries. He aims to make North Carolina’s starting teacher pay the highest in the Southeast at $53,000 and raise teacher salaries by 10.6% by 2027.
The House budget proposal is expected in late May before a final budget compromise is negotiated.
Author: staff report
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