NC Court of Appeals Rules Another Republican Law Unconstitutional

In 2013, Republicans in the NC General Assembly enacted a repeal of "Career Status" (tenure) for public school teachers, just another of their attacks on public education in this state. Their intent was to eliminate teacher tenure entirely by 2018, starting with teachers who had not reached career status by August 2013. Their law revoked career status for all teachers by July 2018.

According to the Progressive Pulse, "as an enticement for already-tenured teachers to act sooner, lawmakers also required local school boards to offer 25 percent of them temporary 4-year contracts with annual raises of $500 in exchange for giving up their tenure rights early."

In May 2014, Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled the new law unconstitutional, including the "25 percent plan," and his ruling was until this morning under appeal to the NC Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals just upheld Hobgood's ruling, saying that the repeal of the teacher tenure law amounted to an unconstitutional taking of contract and property rights as to those teachers who’d already attained that status.