The State Board of Education released shocking numbers regarding the state of teacher attrition in North Carolina. According to reporting from the News & Observer, “10,376 of the state’s 90,638 teachers left the profession” between March 2022 and March 2023. The state’s attrition rate rose 47% over the prior report.

For anyone who still harbored doubt, these statistics make it clear that public education is under attack in North Carolina. From chronic underfunding in Republican budgets, to new legislation that siphons public dollars into private institutions, to a slate of Republican candidates that are openly hostile to the concept of public schools and school teachers, the attacks keep coming. 

“Republican leaders in the General Assembly have made it difficult to be a teacher in North Carolina over the past decade,” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said. “Now, we have prominent Republican candidates running statewide who call public schools ‘indoctrination centers’ and suggest that teachers are brainwashing students. It should come as no surprise that teachers are leaving the profession when they are routinely villainized by candidates for public office. North Carolina and our teachers deserve so much more.”