A new state report shows about 14 percent of North Carolina public school teachers left their jobs last year. That’s close to the same as the year before.
There was more variation in the numbers in the Charlotte area. Charlotte Mecklenburg and Union County Public Schools both had about 15 percent of their teachers leave last year. For CMS, that was down by about 1 percent, but for Union County it was up 1 percent.
Whenever teachers leave their jobs, districts want to know why. They ask them to select one of a couple dozen reasons. Each year the state compiles that in a report.
School officials have worried that stagnant teacher pay would push teachers to take higher-paying jobs in other states. The numbers of teachers leaving to do the same job in another state did jump by about 300 to 734 teachers. About 1,000 left the teaching profession entirely.
This year state lawmakers agreed to raise teacher pay by an average of 7 percent, starting this school year.
The number of teachers who resigned instead of being fired last year was also up to 140.
Altogether, 13,557 teachers left their jobs various reasons.
