Just a quick note to make sure you saw the email below from a North Carolina teacher who left the classroom this year because she is fed up with the way our state lawmakers are treating public schools.
We are honored to have an educator like Carla Fassbender think so much of ProgressNC Action that she is willing to recommend our lean organization as worthy of your financial support.
Ms. Fassbender's email is below. Hope you will consider her request.
Thanks,
Gerrick Brenner
Executive Director
Progress North Carolina
Dear Friend,
My name is Carla Fassbender and I am writing to you today because I know you have heard a lot of vague stories of teachers leaving the classroom in North Carolina. Well, I am one of those teachers who left. I can tell you it's real. It's happening. Teachers are leaving.
And I wanted to tell you directly why I left my career in January as a North Carolina teacher, even though I love the teaching profession.
Gov. McCrory likes to say, "I have a passion for education," even though he's never been a teacher. Well, I was an educator for nine years. I truly have a passion for education, and Pat McCrory's self-described "passion for education" is the reason a lot of teachers are leaving North Carolina public schools.
I left the classroom to pursue a legal career, but groups like Progress North Carolina Action continue to stand up for public education in North Carolina. Will you chip in $5 right now to help them continue to fight for public schools in our state?
Teachers across North Carolina are simply fed up with how they are being mistreated by Governor McCrory and state lawmakers in Raleigh. Teachers are juggling second jobs to make ends meet. They are leaving the profession because they are underpaid and under-appreciated by our Governor and state lawmakers.
Progress North Carolina helped me connect with a local television station in Charlotte, where I was able to voice the frustration felt by thousands of teachers across the state. Teachers are working with larger class sizes, fewer teaching assistants, and old and outdated textbooks.
I miss the students, parents, and teachers at Lakeshore Middle School in Mooresville. But with the current direction of public schools in North Carolina, I decided it was time to move onto law school, where I am learning the skills to fight for public schools in other ways.
I believe in public education. Public schools are key to an educated workforce and healthy community for all of us. That's why I remain engaged and ask you to do the same.
Thank you and together we can refocus North Carolina's priorities on improving, not cutting, our public schools.
Carla Fassebender
Mooresville, NC