N.C. senator to Charlotte teacher: You've got it made

Gov. Pat McCrory’s promising teacher pay plan seems like a no-brainer, if you're an N.C. legislator. Doing so makes you a political hero. You've given a long-overdue pay bump to the people who teach most all of your constituents' children. You've helped move toward making those salaries competitive with neighboring states, which maintains the high level of education in North Carolina that businesses like to use as a recruiting tool. Plus, you've taken an issue out of the media that, rightly or wrongly, has made Republicans look meaner than the Democrats who also let teacher pay go unattended.

And yet, here comes Sen. David Curtis to show that the governor's plan isn't going to sail through the Republican-led General Assembly.

Curtis, a Republican from Denver, responded Monday to an email a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher, Sarah Wiles, sent to N.C. lawmakers. Wiles' email wasn't very different from what teachers have been saying for the past year about their poor pay. It was passionate but not rude, pointed but not surly. But Curtis, perhaps by accident or perhaps out of anger, hit “reply to all” when he wrote his response, which pretty much guaranteed that a lot of North Carolina would be reading it within 24 hours.

Here's the response:

From: Sen. David Curtis
Date: May 12, 2014 at 9:46:57
Dear Sarah,
I have given your e-mail titled “I am embarrassed to confess: I am a teacher” some thought, and these are my ideas.  A teacher has an incredible influence on students–for good or for bad. My teachers, coaches, and Boy Scout leaders had a great influence on my decision to go to college which was not a family tradition. My concern is that your students are picking up on your attitude toward the teaching profession. Since you naturally do not want to remain in a profession of which you are ashamed, here are my suggestions for what you should tell your potential new private sector employer:
1.    You expect to make a lot more than you made as a teacher because everyone knows how poorly compensated teachers are.
2.    You expect at least eight weeks paid vacation per year because that is what the taxpayers of North Carolina gave you back when you were a poorly compensated teacher
3.    You expect a defined contribution retirement plan that will guarantee you about $35,000 per year for life after working 30 years even if you live to be 104 years old. Your employer will need to put about $16,000 per year into your retirement plan each year combined with your $2,000 contribution for the next 30 years to achieve this benefit.  If he objects, explain to him that a judge has ruled that the taxpayers of North Carolina must provide this benefit to every public school teacher. Surely your new employer wants to give better benefits than the benefits you received as a poorly compensated teacher.
4.    Your potential employer may tell you that he has heard that most North Carolina workers make less than the national average because we are a low cost-of-living- state, private sector workers making 87% of the national average and teachers making 85% of the national average.  Tell him that may be true, but to keep that confidential because the teachers union has convinced parents that teachers are grossly undercompensated based on a flawed teachers union survey of teacher pay.
I support the teacher pay raise but am very concerned that the teachers union has successfully presented to the public a deceptive view of total teacher compensation that is simply not consistent with the facts.
Sincerely,
Senator David Curtis

A few thoughts:

First, David Curtis represents a district that is safely Republican, as do many N.C. Republicans, thanks to our state's gerrymandered districts. It's not hard to imagine his near-certainty of re-election helping to remove any inhibition Curtis might have felt before hitting the send button on his  arrogant, condescending email.

Speaking of imagining, we can construct the same kind of employer/employee make-believe that Curtis did. Imagine you're an employer, Sen. Curtis, and you have an employee in front of you who  performs a critical job. But she hasn't received the raises she expected for several years, and that's caused her to make less than people doing the same thing in neighboring states with equally low costs of living (and retirement plans, too). She makes so little, in fact, that despite her having "paid" summers off, she has to hunt seasonal low-paying work to begin to make ends meet. Yet, apparently, you'd prefer she appreciate all her blessings and keep hanging around.

These are the arguments you'll likely hear from Republicans this week when the short session begins in Raleigh.  Some want to do as little as possible for public education, so they'll mention the fictional "teachers union," and they'll pretend, like Curtis, that N.C.'s abysmally low teacher pay is a product of union spin. The difference, this time, is that other Republicans, including the governor and strong thinkers like Rep. Rob Bryan of Charlotte, understand otherwise. The plan they've crafted is not perfect, but it's a strong step toward paying teachers better. That's not only the right thing to do for North Carolina, but it will quiet a statewide furor that's been bad for the GOP. 

Peter St. Onge