Success Story: Statewide Raise for North Carolina School SLPs

Perry Flynn, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL

Consultant to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in the area of speech-language pathology

Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of North Carolina Greensboro

What did you do?

I made friends with a North Carolina legislator who was on the Appropriations Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly, and we met several times for coffee. I advocated for a salary increase along with help from a lobbyist for the North Carolina Speech, Hearing & Language Association. My new [legislator] friend was very receptive, particularly given so many vacancies in North Carolina schools.

As the State Consultant, I maintain a listserv of virtually every SLP who works in the North Carolina Schools (those who are directly employed and those who are contracted). I wrote a sample letter to the members of the Appropriations Committee and provided emails for all those committee members. I encouraged the listserv members to send the letter to the Committee members. Many SLPs did.

The Appropriations Committee did allot a significant increase for salaries of SLPs in the proposed budget. I wrote another sample letter and encouraged members of the listserv to send that letter to their district legislators asking that they support the raise for SLPs that was in the proposed budget. I also provided the website to find contact information for those local legislators. The campaign was successful, and SLPs did receive a significant raise—which did vary depending on the "rung" of the salary ladder that they were on.

What were your greatest challenges?

The process was really quite easy. The biggest challenge was making friends with the legislator who was my "in"—but he was very nice and receptive, and we have remained friends. Just reach out: Legislators are there to work for YOU!

What was the outcome of your efforts?

We were successful in receiving the raise because of the advocacy efforts of so many North Carolina SLPs. You, too, can engage in exactly this kind of advocacy at the charter school, school, or district level.