Teacher assistants are extremely helpful to out teachers. They help model good character, monitor classrooms, and assist with clerical duties.

  Our great state of North Carolina is slowly ridding our busy classrooms of the support from teacher assistants. There have been many teacher assistants let go of from their employment , closed  job positions , and when a teacher assistance retires ; often that position becomes unavailable.

  Teacher Assistants are valuable because they offer one to one work with the students. This helps them become successful. They also help teachers by having time to plan their lesson and TA provide a support network for teachers by giving them time to take of assessments, restroom break, or lunch duty. Also in some districts have the TAs drive school busses which aids in the need to hire more bus drivers.

   An inspiring teacher assistant doesn't need to be licensed, the minimum of forty- eight credit college courses are sufficient however a degree is preferred. There is a group of individuals whose role is to help legislatures understand the need for teacher assistants. This group : NCATA- North Carolina Association of Teacher Assistants seek to improve the wages, job security and professional training of TA's

One reason to cut TA positions is to increase teacher pay as we can see in this graph , NC falls behind in the national average of teacher pay. 

The graph shows where the majority of the massive tax cuts enacted by the Governor.  

Cuts in Budget

“If you want this money for teacher assistants, then let’s put this money toward teacher assistants,” said Sen. Harry Brown, the top budget writer in his chamber. “It’s a constant argument, and I think we’re at the point where we’re ready to get it off the table and just say we’re going to fund them at this level.”

During the 2014-2015 school year,  districts used forty-eight million out of the teacher assistants budget of three hundred seventy-six million. They did this in order to hire more teachers.  They believe in reducing class sizes which can increase student learning due to teacher-student ratio. Sometimes districts will use TA funds in order to buy material and supplies for the school. 

• As of now there is an offer on the in the Legislative Branch in Raleigh. This proposal would cut money reserved for school improvements such as s high-speed internet use throughout all school districts. There is one million set aside to sponsor charter schools in rural communities. Lastly, four million in holding for bonuses for International Baccalaureate teachers whose students score extremely well on exams.

• If the state were to dip into these funds they would be able to hire teacher assistants and the programs listed above could be put on hold for a time being.

Ways to Improve Classroom and Teacher Assistant positions

• The amount of resources that we have available should first be dispersed to ensure classrooms in grades Pre-K through third grade each have both a teacher and a teacher assistant. This will enable students to receive benefits from having two caring individuals who work as a team in the goal of student achievement. 
• Increase funding for teacher assistants by cutting funds from other departments as discussed above
• Grades fourth and fifth can have rotating TA's where they spend at lease half a day in a classroom 

Citations

http://abc11.com/education/nc-teacher-assistants-wait-to-learn-their-fate/959609/

http://abc11.com/politics/nc-budget-protects-teacher-assistants-drivers-ed/984012/

www.ncpublicschools.org/licensure/assistant/

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article24672286.html