Your Voice Your Vote: NC House District 17 candidates talk education

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC– It’s your voice your vote.

Candidates for the North Carolina house district 17 are talking education. Incumbent Frank Iler says he is proud of what he has done for the school system this year.

“I went into every school in the county and talked directly to teachers last year and those are some of the issues we talked about,” Iler said. “We talked about pay as well as distractions, all of the testing they have to do. I’ll be working on that next session to try to simplify some of the things that take away from teaching.”

His challenger is Charles Warren. He also wants to be the voice for our educators.

“Our teachers, they are our future with our children, because if we don’t bring and support our teachers here now, when it comes to our kids future, they’re not going to have as bright a future as we did,” Warren said.

Warren is known for some controversy after he filed a lawsuit against his fellow Brunswick County commissioners in 2013.

“I want to make it clear,” Warren said. “The reason they were so adamantly against me is because I was protecting 3 white females who the director had sexually harassed.”

Looking forward, we asked both about the recent raise in teacher pay.

“Well every teacher got a raise,” Iler said. “The veteran teachers have been getting longevity pay at 4 and a half percent every year during the freeze, so they weren’t hurt as badly. So, the biggest raises went to the teachers that were hurt the most during the freeze. It was frozen in 2009 under Governor Perdue. This year we unfroze it.”

“It was a disgrace,” Warren said. “The way that they set up the teacher’s pay scale. They set it up to give the unexperienced teachers the most of the money, but the ones that have been here that have to train the new teachers are getting 0.02 percent.”

Both candidates say have what it takes to be your voice for district 17.

“I’ll continue to fight for education,” Iler said. “I’ll continue to fight for transportation and continue the teacher’s pay and again getting the distractions our of the classroom.”

“I have good leadership skills,” Warren said. “I have small businesses. I have willingness to listen to the voters but at the same time showing accountability for my actions.”

Early voting started Thursday. Election Day is November 4th.