I heard an alarming story last week. A teacher was discussing recent interviews she had conducted of potential new teachers. When asked “why would you like to teach at our school,” the job candidates could only muster lame responses such as “because it’s close to my house!” The teacher was dumbfounded that these people couldn’t even come up with a useful, halfway-convincing response.

What seems to be happening is that the good teachers are heading out the door after one or two years, discovering they can get paid twice a teacher’s salary in the private sector. Taking their place are often teachers who aren’t as bright or as capable. Where does that leave the education of our children?

If our governor and legislative leaders like to harp about running government like a business, they should remember the first rule of hiring: if you want top talent you have to pay for top talent. If our state leaders want North Carolina to be competitive, we should pay our teachers a competitive wage and not have our teacher salaries near the lowest in the nation.

The future prosperity of our state rests on the education we provide to our children. The mistakes we are making now will haunt us in the years to come.

Two things seemingly unrelated captured my attention last week. One was the threat of war with Syria, the other was a parent encountering a child who had shown up to school with an empty stomach.

President Eisenhower once called military arms a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. Sixty years later we have yet to heed his words. When will our country stop feeding the war machine and start feeding the needy among us?

I hope those advocating for war in the name of Syria’s children will consider the needs of our children first.