North Carolina Teacher Incentive Program
(NC
TIP)
The
North Carolina Teacher Incentive Program (NC TIP) initiated
by the General assembly addresses a shortage of teachers
that is nearing crisis stage across the state.
The
program, instituted at Western Carolina University, Elizabeth
City State University, and UNC Pembroke, allows a limited
number of out-of-state students to attend these institutions
at in-state rates. The scholarship program, which could
result in a savings to eligible students at WCU of some
$35,000, requires the students accepting it to teach one
year of public school for every year they participate in
the program.
Michael
Dougherty, Dean of WCU's College of Education and Allied
Professions, says, "If we can pump more teachers into
Western North Carolina, if we can get them here in the first
place, they're more likely to stay here and teach permanently."
The
teacher shortage is getting dire; Haywood County, for example,
has had to hire provisionally licensed teachers for some
subjects.
The
numbers are not encouraging. Each year North Carolina must
hire between 10,000 and 12,000 new teachers. Each year state
institutions only graduate around 3,500 teachers. Each year
a shade more than 2,000 of those graduates accept teaching
positions in the state. And two years later only 1,400 of
them are still teaching.
The
North Carolina Teacher Incentive Program should help fill
that gap. We'd like to see the program taken further, with
additional incentives for in-state students to move into
the teaching profession. After all, one of the problems
facing this area in particular for years has been an unstable
job market, and the result has been a "brain drain" where many of the best and brightest from our communities
have been forced to leave the area to find gainful employment
- in some cases any employment.
We
can't think of a better place for the best and brightest
sons and daughters of WNC to be than in the classroom. Not
that many aren't already there - there just aren't enough
of them, and more are needed every year.
As
the General Assembly begins its session, it faces a full
plate of issues.
Strengthening
the North Carolina Teacher Incentive Program is one that
deserves a place on the table.
