We learn in this morning’s News & Observer that the General Assembly’s final state budget plan includes “modest” pay raises for teachers. The word “modest” appears in both the lede and the subheadline. (The copy editor who wrote the subhead presumably took “modest” from the lede.)

The short article never tells us the size of the pay raise, though a sidebar explains the average increase is 3 percent. It’s a larger raise than that planned for other state employees (2.75 percent, $1,100, or 88 percent if you’re married to the governor).

And legislative leaders “noted that teachers and state workers are getting better raises here than just about anywhere else in the Southeast.”

The teacher pay raise is “modest” only in comparison with the governor’s original request of 7 percent increases.