Schools in North Carolina are used to grading the students who attend, but a recent High Point University poll gave people across the state a chance to turn the tables and grade the schools. The schools came away with passing grade – a C – but a middling grade isn’t much to get excited about when it comes to something as crucial as educating children.

Less than 10 percent of respondents gave the schools in the state an A grade.

NC residents grading North Carolina schools on overall quality answered the question: “Using a grade of A, B, C, D and F – where A is excellent, and F is very poor – – how would you grade North Carolina on the quality of its public schools?”

The answers were as follows:

A – 8%

B – 18%

C – 29%

D – 23%

F – 11%

Unsure – 11%

The poll conducted by High Point University also found that the majority of people in the state feel as though teachers are underpaid – and many respondents also said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to provide teachers with better pay.

The results from the question on the opinion of teacher pay were as follows:

Too little – 55%

About right – 26%

Too much – 6%

Unsure – 13%

In response to the question, “Would you be willing to pay more in taxes so that North Carolina teachers would be paid at the level of the national average within five years?” poll participants responded:

Yes – 45%

No – 22%

Unsure – 34%

In other poll findings, a large majority of North Carolinians – 73 percent – said school safety is the Number 1 issue that the state government in Raleigh needs to address.

Also, an even larger majority of North Carolinians – 74 percent – said they strongly or somewhat support having one or more armed police officers on duty at a school campus anytime school is in session.

Most poll respondents said they would strongly or somewhat support having metal detectors at all school entrances – 76 percent – and 68 percent said they support screening all students for mental health problems.

About six years ago, some Guilford County Commissioners talked about the possibility of arming willing teachers in the county’s school system; however, in the HPU poll, only 46 percent said they supported allowing teachers or other school staff to carry guns in school.

School safety as an issue to be resolved came out well ahead of other issues that were also found to be important to most North Carolinians. Those include inflation (68 percent), health care (67 percent), education (67 percent), supporting veterans (64 percent), quality law enforcement (62 percent), the opioid epidemic (60 percent).

Those concerns, in order of importance, were followed by concerns over job creation, taxes, civil rights and housing prices.