Today, Governor Roy Cooper delivered remarks at the North Carolina Association of Educators March for Students & Rally for Respect on Bicentennial Plaza in downtown Raleigh. See below for his remarks as prepared:
Hello North Carolina teachers! I know why you’re here!
To fight for our students, fight for our schools, and fight for our future. And it’s personal. Thanks for being here and for the great work you do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about someone else who would have been here today. My mom. She was a public school teacher in Nash County. And if she were still on this earth, you better believe she’d have that red dress of hers on and she would be here fighting for her kids.
I know that each of you want to do right by kids or you would not have gone into teaching.
As parents and grandparents, we leave our kids in the hands of teachers like you for hours each school day.
For some working parents, it’s more hours in a workday than we get to spend with our own children.
We expect you to educate them. Support them. Counsel them. Keep them safe.
And we do that because we trust our teachers.
And now we need to put our money where our trust is and raise teacher pay.
We need to get to at least the national average--37th in the country is totally unacceptable.
That’s why my budget puts an extra $112 million dollars to boost teacher pay for an average raise of more than 8%. In my budget, every teacher would get at least a 5 percent raise--some would get almost 15 percent.
And when I say every teacher, I mean every teacher--including our veteran teachers.
They’ve been left out by the legislature, but we all know veteran teachers are critical for the success of our schools.
Under my plan, we’ll reach at least the national average in four years.
But we have to be willing to prioritize it and to pay for it.
How? We should freeze the tax cut for corporations and people making over $200,000 a year. It’s tax fairness for teacher pay--plain and simple.
Corporations and people making over $200,000 per year have had big tax cuts over the last few years at both the state and federal level. They are scheduled to get yet another one next year—about $110 million dollars worth. I say let’s use that $110 million instead to raise teacher pay? What about you?
Now I want you to ask your state legislators that. Are you going to support even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, or are you going to support much better teacher pay?
That is what this boils down to. You should support the legislators or candidates who may be running against them who truly support public education.
But this is about far more than teacher pay. It’s about real investment in our schools and respect for our teachers.
Because if I’ve learned anything from the hundreds of teachers I’ve met it’s this--teachers don’t teach for the incomes--they teach for the outcomes.
Let me say it again: teachers don’t teach for the incomes--they teach for the outcomes.
Outcomes that include better educated and successful students.
Better pay is just one of the ways we can show our respect for you. But we must do more for our schools.
We have to invest in textbooks and digital learning materials!
We have to improve the physical condition of our schools!
We have to hire more nurses, more counselors, more school resource officers!
And we have to treat teachers like the professionals you are!
My budget does all of that. It does it because we HAVE to.
This is how we help our students succeed. And that’s why we’re all here today.
I’ve visited dozens of schools from the mountains to the coast since I became Governor. And when I’m in those schools there is a big smile on my face. I love visiting your classrooms and talking with your students. Your work is reflected in each and every one of those kids.
I can name so many of my teachers one by one. They each had a real effect on who I am. You are doing the same thing.
Every day.
So thank you.
Thank you for the work you do.
Thank you for your passion.
Thank you for your dedication.
Thank you for your decision to become and stay a teacher.
I’m honored to stand with you--North Carolina’s teachers--today and every day.
May God bless you and your students and may God bless the great state of North Carolina.