Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools presented its 2025-26 budget to Mecklenburg County on Wednesday, asking the Board of Commissioners to approve $667 million in funding that would pay for staff raises and Chromebooks for students.
Amid some tough questions, a common thread emerged: concern over state funding for education, and whether Mecklenburg is getting short shrift.
Commissioners expressed concern about teacher pay. The CMS budget proposal asks the county for a 5% raise in the county-funded teacher salary supplement. That had been a point of debate in the district in the weeks leading up to the budget proposal, with some calling for the district to ask for a higher supplement.
But Superintendent Crystal Hill said that the conversation about teacher pay needs to be happening at the state level, which sets base teacher salaries. She pointed to the fact that the state offers an additional supplement that’s available to nearly all counties — except four, including Mecklenburg County.
She pointed to proposed legislation which would limit that number to two.
“We get distracted by all of these other things and stop paying attention to what is really important,” Hill said.
Hill said the district was trying to keep Mecklenburg County’s own tight budget in mind. She suggested joint action to lobby the state. County Commissioner Vilma Leake similarly called for a joint day of lobbying in Raleigh with educators in the community.
“If we are serious in Mecklenburg County and we say — because we all say it — that we value teachers, we will do something about it, stop having this conversation about what are y’all going to do, and start thinking about what we are already doing as residents of North Carolina, and that is paying state taxes that should be paying the base salary for every single teacher in North Carolina, including the 9,000 that work right here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,” Hill said. “That is what keeps me up at night.”
Hill added that county officials told the district earlier this year they are expecting revenue shortfalls.
“If the county wants to increase further than what we already laid out, you will not hear anybody say that would be a terrible idea,” Hill said. “Our request is in response to what we listened to keenly when we came to the joint meeting, when we heard both boards go back and forth in dialogue about what your current situations were.”
She said that didn’t mean she didn’t believe teachers needed to be paid more — but that the district was “also cognizant that we did not want to ask for anything more than this board and your staff indicated that you had the ability to do.”
Speaking to WFAE after the meeting, County Commission Chair Mark Jerrell said the meeting highlighted how residents of Mecklenburg County have been making up for deficiencies caused by state policy.
“My concerns really focus and center on the lack of funding that our colleagues are going to receive, when you think about the question marks around what’s happening on the federal level, and also it sounds like state funding is an issue,” Jerrell said. “It’s scary, and it’s an extra burden on the taxpayers and the residents of Mecklenburg County. And so we’ve got to really find creative ways, and find ways to talk to our friends up in Raleigh and make sure that they’re clear on the impact that some of their decisions are having on their residents.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ overall budget comes out to around $2.1 billion. Of that, the operating budget accounts for $1.95 billion. That's less than a 1% increase over last year’s budget.
The $667 million request from the county is about $28 million more than what the district got last year. That extra funding request would go toward increasing the local teacher salary supplement, funding potential pay raises for non-certified classified employees — like assistants or other school employees — and funding a refresh of student Chromebooks.
District officials faced some tough questions from commissioners — including on projections that suggest public schools are seeing a shrinking share of student enrollment and how the district quantifies kindergarten readiness.
County Commissioner Leigh Altman, for instance, said she was interested in more discussion about the impact of technology on students’ mental health and the advent of artificial intelligence — and questioning whether money for personal, take-home devices could be better spent elsewhere.
District staff noted that technology has become more entrenched in education — devices are used to take state exams, for instance. Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Beth Thompson noted that at a district summit on AI this week, community members expressed concern about AI — but also curiosity, and a desire to incorporate it into education.
CMS is also crafting its budget amid ongoing uncertainty at the federal level about the future of education funding, with the Trump administration proposing cuts to Title II and Title III funding, which fund teacher development programs and support for multilingual learners, respectively.
Mecklenburg County will adopt its final spending plan, including funding for CMS, next month.
