Well, besides the "severely traumatized horse" who may now be on "life support" at this point, I've learned a few things in trying to answer the OP's original question.
Starting teachers' salaries are low no matter where you go. Whether it's the ~$30K you get in Charlotte or the ~$50K you'd get in a NJ town, it's going to be much lower than a typical college grad.
The more facts you have, the better your advice will be. One of the hindrances in this, is we may not be comparing "apples to apples", but more like "apples to nectarines". It's relatively easy to find info on teacher average or median salaries by state, but I haven't found any guide that compares states by "salary + benefits". Thus, a state that may start teachers at a lower salary than NC but provides better benefits could be seen to be a less desirable place to teach, while it actually may be a "better" economic fit once the benefit costs are thrown into the equation. But without the knowledge of the cost of benefits or lack thereof, it's hard to make any meaningful A-B comparison.
I was unaware of the "NC county supplement" component of teacher salaries. I wonder if a county plays that up to prospective teachers in trying to recruit them at job fairs.
Part of the problem with new teachers and some experienced teachers that transfer into CMS, is that they are the ones that are most likely to be placed into low-performing schools. "Maintaining discipline" rather than "actual learning", becomes the main objective of a teacher in a situation like this and induces "teacher burnout" in short order. If Dr. Gorman has to offer $15,000 to so-called
experienced teachers, practically at
gunpoint and has few takers, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that a new teacher with low pay, and benefits that eat up a goodly percentage of that salary isn't going to stick around for long! I watched an
HBO documentary on
HBO on Demand about a Baltimore High School (Douglas) that probably mirrors what goes on in most low-performing high schools throughout the country. If you have access to HBO on Demand, this documentary is well worth investing 2 hours of your time to get a handle on what teachers face in a low-performing school - it's a real eye-opener! They'd have to pay me more than
Gloria King's United Way salary to get me to teach in a place like that!
I guess I'm spoiled for teaching after having taught Chemistry at a college level at 22 and having nursing students who were old enough to be my mother (and constantly reminding me of that!). If you have good students in the right kind of teaching environment being a teacher is a very satisfying experience. But for many the joys may be few and far between!
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