Beaufort County must pay substitute teachers more

I finally retired from 40 years of teaching as a National Board Certified Teacher, degrees all the way to doctorate, and opportunities which range at local, state, and national levels. Also, I was selected as a national Environmental Educator of the Year.

For the most part, I am a typical retiree — many of us have many more accomplishments and accolades beyond mine.

Over the years, in Beaufort County, I have had days when there was no substitute teacher available, or my colleagues were left with none. This is a very serious problem among our schools.

Today, I learned why. With my degrees and accomplishments, along with my experience, I learned that my substitute salary would be $90 per day, which is about $12.81 per hour. This is less than most retail businesses pay in our community. I rejected the opportunity for this reason.

Who suffers? Our kids!

I ask the Beaufort County Board of Education to develop some type of sliding scale for substitute compensation, rather than spend funds soliciting an outside business, which is obviously not focused on our kids.

This story was originally published August 13, 2017 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Beaufort County must pay substitute teachers more."