McCrory's budget plan eliminates 3,000 teacher assistants

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Judy Brant, president of the North Carolina Association of Teacher Assistants, represents more than 20,000 teacher assistants from across North Carolina.

She said the governor's plan to eliminate their positions is a bad one.

Brant said they're taking this message all the way to Raleigh.

"It takes two to run a classroom these days," she said. "This is our career. We believe we make a difference in education."

Eyewitness News first reported Wednesday about Gov. Pat McCrory's plan to streamline the state's budget.

"We're emphasizing more full-time certified teachers in the classroom instead of assistants to teachers," he said.

Under the governor's plan, more money would be set aside for pre-kindergarten and community colleges. Eighteen hundred new teachers would be hired and every state worker, including teachers, would get a raise.

More than 3,000 teacher assistants, however, would be out of a job.

"A lot of jobs lost, right, a lot of kids who won't get that extra care," Brant said.

WSOC