Budget cuts reduced North Carolina's teaching force by 5 percent from 2009 to 2018 even as enrollment grew, with rural districts losing more than 20 percent of teachers in a single year and 1,621 unfilled vacancies in 2017-18¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2019 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Budget cuts reduced the total number of teachers employed in North Carolina by 5% from 2009 to 2018 while student enrollments increased by 2%. → WestEd 2019 q2 i? Some rural districts lost more than 20% of their teachers in a single year, and the state reported 1,621 teacher vacancies that could not be filled by qualified teachers during 2017-18. → WestEd 2019 (2)

Evidence¶

WestEd 2019¶

WestEd, Learning Policy Institute, & Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. (2019). Sound Basic Education for All: An Action Plan for North Carolina. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED606141

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Findings from the educator supply, demand, and quality study prepared for the project, reported in the Increased Challenges section: a 5% reduction in employed teachers from 2009 to 2018 against a 2% enrollment increase. No effect size is printed.

"budget cuts have reduced the total number of teachers employed in North Carolina by 5% from 2009 to 2018, even as student enrollments have increased by 2%."

WestEd 2019 (2)¶

WestEd, Learning Policy Institute, & Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. (2019). Sound Basic Education for All: An Action Plan for North Carolina. San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED606141

q2 · i? · review · r2

Analysis of district-level teacher turnover data (Exhibit 5) and state vacancy reports in the Increased Challenges section: rural district losses above 20% in a single year and 1,621 unfilled vacancies in 2017-18. No effect size is printed.

"with some of the rural districts losing more than 20% of their teachers in a single year, as shown in Exhibit 5. The state reported 1,621 teacher vacancies — a consequence of declining supply and high turnover — that could not be filled by qualified teachers during 2017–18"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In 2015–16, North Carolina Opportunity Culture schools outperformed other North Carolina schools on state accountability growth measures — related
• K-12 public school enrollment is declining and projected to fall 3.7 percent by 2031, reducing funding in the 35 states and DC that use student-based funding formulas — related
• Offering $20,000 per teacher filled 90 percent of targeted vacancies in hard-to-staff schools with high-performing teachers across seven districts — related
• 68 percent of K–12 districts experienced enrollment declines between 2018–19 and 2023–24 while still operating roughly the same number of schools — related
• U.S. teacher shortages are nationwide and worsening, with over 300,000 positions unfilled or filled by uncertified teachers in 2023 — a broader claim this one bears on
• Extreme weather events driven by climate change closed schools across the United States in the 2024-25 school year — related
• Michigan's teacher vacancy data are severely underreported, with nearly 90% of districts reporting zero vacancies in 2021-22 — related
• K-12 and postsecondary education in the United States operate in fundamentally different worlds with separate essential structures while students flow across the divide — related