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North Carolina teachers are getting some of their largest pay raises in recent years, but some educators say it’s not enough during a time of rising inflation and healthcare costs.
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The Tools4Schools store in Raleigh was filled this week with Wake County teachers searching for free classroom supplies heading into the new school year. Several educators said they need options such as Tools4Schools because the’y’re not getting enough financial relief despite this year’s state budget.
“A lot of us are still struggling,” Elliott Farrell, a second-grade teacher at Herbert Akins Road Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina, said in an interview. “This is the first time ever where we’ve kind of been on the fence.”
Farrell and his wife, Sara, a fourth-grader teacher at Willow Springs Elementary, both decided to stay in the classroom. But both 14-year teachers are soon nearing a point on the state salary scale where they won’t get annual “step” pay increases for a decade.
“Do we need to leave the thing we love?” Farrell said. “That would be heartbreaking to have to do. But at the end of the day, we have our own children we also have to take care of.”
Last year, North Carolina was the only state not to have adopted a budget. This meant teachers didn’t get new raises. This contributed to the National Education Association estimating that North Carolina had fallen to 46th in the nation in average teacher pay.
NEA also had estimated that the average teacher salary in North Carolina had dropped to $59,971.
The new state budget adopted this summer provides teachers with an average raise of 8%. All teachers are getting a raise, but the biggest ones are for beginning teachers.
With the addition of the local salary supplement, a second-year teacher in Wake County will make $55,596. Nikya Yates said that’s enough for her and her 10-year-old daughter Tanasha to live on.
“It’s sustainable for me and my daughter,” Yates, a seventh-grade teacher at River Bend Middle School in Raleigh, said in an interview. “It’s enough for me to not have to have a second job.”
But the pay isn’t enough for some educators. Charlene Montford, 75, said she’s fortunate to have her retirement income to supplement her salary as a CTE (career and technical education) teacher at Wakefield Middle School in Raleigh.
“The money is not as important to me now because I have retirement income,” Montford said in an interview. “But for the younger teachers, it has to be a real dedication and passion.”
Shaulanda Smith is among the North Carolina teachers who work a second job. Smith, who has 22 years of teaching experience, said working as an esthetician helping people with their skin care gives her some extra income.
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“I feel like we could get more,” Smith, a CTE teacher at Rolesville High School, said in an interview. “But it’s up to the teacher, the staff, if they want to stay in North Carolina or go to a different county.”
The fight over teacher pay comes at the same time as educators are spending money out of their own pockets to stock their classrooms.
North Carolina teachers spend an average of $1,632 a year of their own money on classroom supplies, based on a 2025 study from CouponBirds. That put North Carolina second-highest in the nation behind only Pennsylvania teachers.
The Tools4School store helps ease the burden on Wake County teachers. But the store has its limits. Using a point system for different items, teachers can visit the store once a quarter.
Teachers can get $150 to $200 of free supplies per visit, according to Keith Poston, president of the WakeEd Partnership, an education advocacy group that operates Tools4Schools.
“Sometimes we as teachers, have to use our money,” said Smith, the Rolesville High teacher. “So being able to receive free supplies for the classroom and the students is a great deal.”
Smith stocked up on items such as composition notebooks so that her childhood development students can take notes in them.
Wipes and sanitizer were popular items for teachers looking through the store shelves.
Juntong Zhou loaded up on headphones for her Mandarin immersion students at Stough Elementary School in Raleigh. Beginning in kindergarten, Stough students study math, social studies and science in both Mandarin and English
“We are really, really grateful for that because we have a very limited classroom budget, so we can always find what we want from here,” Zhou said in an interview.
Farrell, the Herbert Akins Elementary teacher, loaded up his cart with file folders for parent conferences, books for his students, laminating sheets and erasers.
“It can be challenging to get the supplies you need, and we always find what we need here,” Farrell said.
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