After Last Year's March on Raleigh, N.C. Teachers Got a Raise. That's Not Good Enough, They Say.

Every weekday, Charlene DeLaughter wakes up in the dark, around 5:15 a.m. She drives herself and her ten-year-old son from Raleigh, where they live, to Durham’s Lakewood Elementary School, where Sidney is a fifth-grader and DeLaughter is the only counselor for 389 students. Some days, she doesn’t get home until dark.

That’s been her job for two-and-a-half years, crafting a curriculum to address students’ social and emotional needs, collaborating with teachers on instructing children with different learning styles, and visiting classrooms every month—more often in times of crisis, like when Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids spread fear among Lakewood’s immigrant community. (DeLaughter counts at least six students whose relatives were detained by ICE this school year.)

For that, she earns $47,000 a year.

From that sum, the single mother deducts student loan payments, rent, and the approximately $300 she spends each year on gifts for her students: little things like stress balls and Yo-Yos. It’s never a choice between buying something for them and buying something for Sidney, she says. She goes without.

Read more: https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/nc-teachers-march-on-raleigh-2019/