The largest school districts in the state announced closures once it became clear that not enough teachers would be in the classroom. Thousands of North Carolina teachers poured into downtown Raleigh and marched to the state’s General Assembly on Wednesday morning in the latest in a series of red-state public school teacher uprisings across the country. The North Carolina Association of Educators, the group coordinating the protest, said teachers were marching because the state has cut taxes while public school per-student spending and teacher salaries lag national averages. North Carolina slashed its corporate income tax rate in 2013, reducing it from 6.9 percent to its current 3.0 percent. Per-student public school spending is down about 8 percent over the same period, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Source: Huffington Post May 16, 2018 17:25 UTC