The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board will discuss revisions to its proposed 2012-13 budget today. Among its many contentious items are later school start times and dismissals, funding for middle-school sports and a principal-recruitment program, and tracking student progress at the Bright Beginnings prekindergarten program, according to the Charlotte Observer.

What caught my attention (I am, after all, the daughter of an educator) is a proposed 3-percent raise for teachers championed by board member Eric Davis. After years of CMS staff and supply cuts, it must sound like music to some battered ears. Says the Observer:

The state has given no teacher raises for the last three years, and the 2012-13 state budget continues that freeze. “Our entire board should go to Raleigh to ask for an increase for our teachers,” Davis said.

In an editorial, the Observer noted:

The effect on teachers has been felt in a place where this community can ill afford for it to be felt — it hurt student learning. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh told school board members last year’s slump in high school performance on state exams is linked to the staff cuts.

I can only hope Mr. Davis' enthusiastic Raleigh comment materializes into action. Only then, it seems, will other things fall into place.

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