The two teachers’ unions in the area, Asheville City Association of Educators and North Carolina Buncombe County Association of Educators, coordinated over 600 staff to request off on May 1. While public sector unions are not legally allowed to strike under NC law, 45% of teachers and staff are using personal days to protest the deteriorating conditions in schools.
An April 23 post to Buncombe County Schools Facebook page read:
“We are unable to safely operate our schools on Friday, May 1 as there will not be enough staff to teach and supervise students.”
Since 2013, a voucher program for private school tuition called the Opportunity Scholarship Program has eroded public education. Some 90% of all money allocated for education in the state underwrites school privatization. NC ranks 51st – dead last – in public funding, spending on average just over $12,000 per student. State legislators are also pushing for 0% corporate tax by 2030 while public school staff are forced to work second and third jobs. NC teacher’s salaries are some of the lowest in the country falling to 46th place this year, according to the National Education Association’s “Educator Pay in America 2026” report.
Thousands of union members are expected to convene in Raleigh to make clear demands to politicians and launch the Kids Over Corporations campaign. Via the NCAE webpage:
- Increase spending per pupil to $20,000
- 25% raise for teachers
- 5% tax on corporations
Teachers and students will mobilize across NC on the first of May and that date is not an arbitrary choice. In 1884, thousands of workers in Chicago went on strike demanding an 8-hour workday as law. After police broke the strike with force, dozens were dead and injured. Since then it has become globally recognized as a day of action known as International Workers’ Day or May Day. Working class organizations across the U.S. are calling for a general strike this year. As war with Iran lingers, federal agents invade neighborhoods, prices skyrocket and public funding plummets, now is the time to bring the system to a screeching halt and demand a better world.
