Education

Investing in Our Future

For decades, North Carolina’s world-class community colleges and universities  have had a reputation for excellence. Maintaining that reputation requires a continued investment and strong support for early childhood education, along with quality pre-K to K-12 schools.

Governor Cooper knows that North Carolina’s success depends on a robust public education system and he has proposed solutions to keep our public schools strong and make North Carolina a Top Ten Educated State by 2025.

A quality teacher in every classroom and a quality principal in every school make for great public schools – and our children deserve nothing less.

In his latest budget, Governor Cooper proposed an average 8% teacher pay raise this year, with every teacher receiving at least a 5% raise, to get North Carolina on track to reach the national average in teacher pay by 2021. This includes veteran teachers who were left behind in the legislature’s teacher pay plans. It’s been over 20 years since North Carolina passed a school construction bond, and the Governor’s proposed budget supported a $1.9 billion school construction bond to help ensure our children are learning in 21st century classrooms.

Further investing in North Carolina’s high-quality education system, Governor Cooper strongly advocates for more funding to bolster student support services at North Carolina’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

In recent years, too many tragedies have taken place at our nation’s schools. Governor Cooper is committed to keeping students and schools safe. He proposed $120 million to update school facilities, hire more nurses and mental health professionals in schools, and increase funding for school resource officers, along with common sense gun legislation.