We should not be running off good teachers, but we are

‘I felt I was no longer valued as a professional."

"It was apparent they didn't care at all what we said. I just couldn't do it anymore."

Take a minute to let those words sink in. They were spoken by two well-regarded former New Hanover County teachers. Over the years they tolerated stagnant pay, increasing paperwork, continually changing education policies, and red tape. They met with enthusiasm the daily challenge of coaxing the best possible performance from their students.

But they could no longer abide working in an atmosphere in which teachers and the teaching profession have become objects of blatant disdain.

Sadly, they left their teaching jobs here. One moved to another state where teachers are better paid and have collective bargaining rights. The other, last year's New Hanover County high school Teacher of the Year, left the profession altogether, settling in a job that pays considerably better but which almost certainly is not as fulfilling. As did a Brunswick County chemistry teacher who got up in front of the school board there; he now works as a chemist.

All three, profiled Monday by StarNews reporter Pressley Baird, had a reputation as excellent teachers.

They are examples of educators our state should be fighting to keep – the ones who motivate their students to do their very best, who are tough but understand that each student is a different person with different needs, strengths and weaknesses.

We shouldn't have lost Jodi Sollosi, Amy Kyle or Richard Brown. But we did, and there will be others.

Maybe we could have kept them, if they hadn't lost hope that things will get better. If they felt that, despite tight budgets and only one minuscule raise in the past several years, the public and our state lawmakers truly respected them. If they felt as though they were a welcome part the effort to improve our schools, as opposed to the targets of "reform." Or if lawmakers had approved even a small pay increase as a tangible show of support.

For Brown, the issue was merit pay, which will reward only the "best" teachers and will end tenure. Student test scores will surely be a significant factor in determining which ones are "the best" and only a fraction of teachers will be eligible – even if more are highly rated. Brown believes that structure will fuel conflict among teachers rather than encouraging collaboration to improve the school as a whole.

It also is likely to make it harder to find excellent teachers willing to work in high-poverty schools, where great teachers are most needed.

But for Sollosi and Kyle, while money certainly played a role, it was not what ultimately drove them away. "There was no part of me that wanted to leave," Kyle told the StarNews. But after weighing her future in North Carolina schools, she did.

We can't always give teachers everything they want. Budgets are tight, and taxpayers have made it clear that they want to slow government spending. But a little respect costs nothing.

Instead, New Hanover County's state senator regularly uses contemptuous terms such as "government schools" and "educrats," as do some of his peers.

If we want to encourage the best and brightest students to go into teaching – and we should, if the goal is to improve public education rather than to tear it down – then we must value teaching and teachers. And we must demand the same from the people we elect.