THE PENDULUM
Elon, North Carolina • Wednesday, March 19,2014 • Volume 40, Edition 8
North Carolina teacher tenure in peril
Jarrett Lancaster is one of seven adjunct professors in the Elon University Physics Department who does not have tenure.
Michael Bodley
News Editor
CAROLINE OLNEYI Photo Editor
In North Carolina, state Republicans are
pushing teachers to give up their tenure early,
before it expires in 2018, in accordance with a
law recently passed by the state legislature. To
do so, lawmakers have provided an incentive
for teachers willing to sacrifice tenure, part of a
$200 million bump to teacher pay throughout
North Carolina.
The average starting salary for a North
Carolina teacher is currently $30,800, or about
$6,000 below the national average, not includ
ing the supplements individual districts often
pay to teachers when county funds become
available. Teachers holding advanced degrees
used to earn 10 percent more than their col
leagues, with the possibility of further raises
stemming from seniority.
Supporters of the measure have called it
a necessity in fiscally-troubling times, and as
such, the Republican-led State Legislature
slashed slightly more than a billion dollars from
educational funding for the 2014 fiscal year.
In early February, Gov. Pat McCrory laid
out a plan to increase the starting salaries of
new teachers by up to 14 percent.
Teachers with more than four years of ex
perience are mostly unaffected by the plan — a
move thought to be in response to the criti
cisms from teachers after the legislature passed
similar restrictions curbing teacher pay over the
summer.
In July 2013, the state legislature passed a
bill that removed pay incentives for teachers
with masters and other advanced-level degrees.
“I’m concerned about the school system as
a whole right now,” said Joe Ferrell, principal
of Walter M. Williams High School in Burl
ington, to The Pendulum in Fall 2013. “Why
would teachers seeking master’s degrees come
to North Carolina, where they’re now not re
warded for their work in furthering their own
education?”
In the wake of the budget cuts that raised
caps on classroom sizes, Angela Owusu-An-
sah, associate dean of the school of education
at Elon University, called an exodus “immi
nent” for underpaid North Carolina teachers
to neighboring states that better compensate
their educators.
McCrory announced statewide pay raises
for young teachers in early Febuary, criticising
the starting salaries of teachers in the state.
“That’s not even enough to raise a frmily or
pay off student loans,” McCrory said in a press
release. “How do we expect someone to pay
that loan with that starting salary?”
See TENURE page 3
Study shows end-of-life
care views differ based on
circumstances, religion
Katy Canada
Managing Editor
A recent study by the Pew Research Center
indicates changing trends in how Americans
view end-of-life medical treatment. Down
7 percent from a 1990 survey, 66 percent of
Americans now say there are circumstances in
which medical professionals should allow their
patients to die.
The study also showed an increase in recent
years of people who said, for their own medical
care, they would prefer to end medical treat
ment, depending on the exact circumstances.
This group stands at 57 percent, as opposed to
the 35 percent who said they would do every
thing possible to stay alive.
The study also signifies Americans’ over
whelming belief that individuals have a moral
right to end their own lives. On a case-by-case
basis, 62 percent say that if a person is suffering
and shows no sign of improvement, it is that
person’s moral prerogative to commit suicide.
This is a 7 percent uptick from 1990.
But ^Americans have consistently disap
proved of physician-assisted suicide. In 2013,
49 percent of respondents said they did not
believe physicians have the right to end a
person’s life, up from 45 percent in 2005.
Options for end-of-life care
Elon University sophomore Tom Riley
spent the last few months at the Hospice and
Palliative Care Center of Alamance-Caswell
County helping patients work through their
advance care directives. Advance directives
specify a patient’s wishes and instmctions in the
event of a medical emergency during which he
or she can’t make decisions.
Patients at the hospice center are required to
be in the final six months of their lives. Many
have decided to discontinue medical treatment
for serious illnesses.
SeeEND-OF-UFE CAREpage4