Several area school districts have changed their calendars so that students will be out of school on Friday, May 1, because thousands of educators are expected to march in downtown Raleigh that day.
The North Carolina Association of Educators is organizing a mass rally to support its "Kids Over Corporations" campaign. They're calling for better funded schools, and a halt to upcoming corporate tax cuts in North Carolina that could further reduce school funding.
Last week, the school boards for Chatham County Schools, Guilford County Schools and Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools voted to change their calendars to make it a teacher workday or annual leave day. The school boards cited a large number of requests from educators for personal days — so many that it would be difficult to fill classes with substitute teachers.
May 1 was already a planned teacher work day in Wake County Schools. Durham Public Schools' superintendent said the district is considering its options, and the decision would have to come before the DPS school board, which meets next on April 23.
"I think we're going to see lots of principals, lots of school boards, lots of superintendents saying this is important … that we be in Raleigh together, and that we say that enough is enough," said NCAE's Vice President Bryan Proffitt.
Motivations for NCAE's rally
The lack of a state budget has meant no teacher raises or new school funding this year. Proffitt says that's squeezing North Carolina's public schools more than ever before, but that the march is about much more than the state budget delay.
"What we're dealing with right now is not actually even the worst that it could get, if the state doesn't course correct, in particular around the corporate income tax," Proffitt said.
By 2030, North Carolina's corporate income tax rate is set to zero out, meaning corporations would no longer pay taxes to support the state's public education, health services, and other infrastructure.
NCAE has been pointing to a 2025 report from the Education Law Center that ranked North Carolina dead last in the country for school funding effort. That metric takes into account how well states fund public education relative to a state's overall wealth.
When NCAE organized large marches in 2018 and 2019, they drew an estimated 20,000 or more educators and public school supporters.
