Teacher pay, school safety, American politics: Durham’s Easley Elementary School students have many of the same concerns as Durham’s adults, and this week they got to share them with lawmakers on Bring Your Legislator to School Day.
“Teachers earn less than many other jobs despite working more hours,” Elizabeth Medlyn, an Easley fifth grader, told a roundtable of students and state Representatives Vernetta Alston, Ray Jeffers, Marcia Morey, and state Senator Sophia Chitlik. “And I love my teachers, they deserve the best. So please consider raising their pay.”
Other students pointed out issues like bullying, excessive standardized testing, and only having a nurse in the building two days a week.
The legislators, all of whom are Democrats in the Republican-controlled chambers, tried to be honest with the students about the future of public education in North Carolina without painting too bleak a picture.
“So some of you might get allowance, and you have to pick what you do with that. The state collects taxes, and we’ve made a set of choices with our money that have led us to this situation, and it makes me feel really sad and embarrassed,” said Chitlik. “I feel honestly a little bit ashamed that we have to have a room full of fourth and fifth graders asking us for the bare minimum resources that you and your school and your teachers deserve.”
It might be hard for anyone, of any age, to feel great about public K-12 education in North Carolina right now. The state ranks near the very bottom of all 50 states in local and state per pupil spending, taxpayer dollars marked for public schools are increasingly being vacuumed away to charter and private schools, and top Trump administration officials have wanted districts that “federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right.”
Another student mentioned safety concerns, wondering what could stop someone from “taking down the door and coming in, or just waiting for our recess and trying to get us?”
Several of the adults in the room, including principal Jennifer Hauser, were visibly emotional at the question. She reminded the students of how prepared everyone felt during an incident earlier in the year when a delivery driver showed up to the school’s back door and triggered a lockdown.
“I know it’s kind of scary to see some of the things that we see sometimes in the news, but my most important thing is that you guys are all safe every day, and then that you’re educated. And I feel really good about making sure you guys are safe,” said Hauser.
After a tour of several classrooms—in which students were (perhaps appropriately for the times) rehearsing Annie’s “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” learning to code robots to dance, and having quiet reading time—the legislators circled back up with a group of teachers, who pointed out many of the same issues their students had.
Despite the empowering messages posted around the school (“BE THE CHANGE” the marquee board outside the building reminded students and journalists), Morey spoke grimly about the ineffectiveness of the legislature’s minority party when facing pending Republican bills to ban DEI and eliminate the cap on the number of children per class.
“We are with you, beat by beat, and we’ll do everything we can, but [Democrats] don’t have the numbers right now,” Morey told the educators.
Kindergarten teacher Brooke Farr has been teaching at DPS for over 20 years, has sent several children to DPS, and even attended Easley herself before that. She got choked up as she told Superintendent Anthony Lewis that she was “proud to be an employee in Durham Public Schools, and I always will be.”
“But we’re not perfect, and we’re struggling, and we have things we need here,” said Farr.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.