Raleigh, NC – In January, I wrote in these pages that coordinated teacher “callouts” are not protected protest — they are illegal work stoppages under North Carolina law. Robert Luebke of the John Locke Foundation’s Center for Effective Education agreed, while adding an important qualifier: “I do sympathize with teachers. Having no budget places teachers and school districts in very difficult positions. The blame for that is on lawmakers. If lawmakers would do their job, and teachers stick to doing theirs, we’re not having this conversation.”
On Friday, thousands of teachers walked out at the NCAE’s “Kids Over Corporations Rally” in Raleigh. At least 20 school districts across the state canceled classes because they could not safely staff schools. In New Hanover County, which kept schools open, 325 substitute positions were requested. About 200 substitutes and 100 central staff employees filled in for teachers who called out.
In the four months since I first wrote on these callouts, the law has not changed. And North Carolina still does not have a state budget. Both facts matter.
The Law Still Says What It Says
NC General Statute § 95-98.1 has not been amended since 1981. Strikes by public employees remain illegal and against the public policy of this state. The companion provision, § 95-98.2, defines a strike as “a cessation or deliberate slowing down of work by a combination of persons as a means of enforcing compliance with a demand upon the employer.”
The NCAE has organized a coordinated absence on a specific date, with specific demands — at least a 25% raise for all school staff, a $20,000 per-pupil spending floor, elimination of school vouchers, lifting the collective bargaining ban — aimed at forcing legislative action. That is a work stoppage used as leverage, not a spontaneous expression of individual conscience. The NCAE calls it a “rally.” Others might call it a “nightmare.”
Just as with previous callouts, some argue that because demands are directed at the General Assembly rather than local school boards, the strike prohibition doesn’t apply. I addressed this in January: that reading creates a loophole that swallows the rule. Local boards remain teachers’ employers regardless of who controls the funding, and public employees retain every right to petition and speak — outside their working hours, without abandoning the students in their care.
The Budget Failure Is Indefensible
None of that excuses what the General Assembly has done — or rather, failed to do. North Carolina’s last full budget expired after the 2023-25 biennial. Teachers and school districts have paid the price in frozen salaries and frozen planning. That is an abdication of the legislature’s most basic constitutional duty.
The impasse is a Republican intra-party dispute with two main fault lines: how aggressively to pursue scheduled income tax cuts and how generously to raise teacher and state employee pay. None of those disagreements justifies leaving teachers without raises for years. When the short session opened two weeks ago, Speaker Destin Hall and Pro Tem Phil Berger both signaled hope for a deal. Hope is not a budget. Parents and teachers have heard this before.
Some NCAE demands are worth examining. Luebke is correct that a mandatory $20,000 per-pupil spending floor makes little policy sense — North Carolina already spends $18 billion in combined state, federal, and local funds on K-12, with real per-pupil spending up 7% since 2016, even as enrollment fell 5%. Eliminating the Opportunity Scholarship Program would strip educational options from 106,789 currently enrolled students. But the core ask — meaningful raises and a functioning budget — is reasonable, long overdue, and entirely within the legislature’s power to deliver.
Everyone Needs to Do Their Job
Luebke’s conclusion in January bears repeating: “Having teachers walk off their jobs is no way for a school to operate. Having lawmakers fail to appropriate money for a state budget is no way for a legislature to operate. It’s time for everyone to do their jobs.”
Encouraging or normalizing conduct that violates existing law is neither principled advocacy nor sound public policy. It places students in disputes that should be resolved by grown-ups through lawful channels. The lesson adults teach when they circumvent the law to get what they want is one North Carolina cannot afford to give.
Jeanette Doran is the president and general counsel of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law.