As legislative Republicans refuse to compromise with Governor Roy Cooper, another week has passed without a raise for North Carolina teachers. It has been 90 days since Governor Cooper offered a reasonable compromise budget offer that would give teachers a significant raise. For 90 days Republican leadership has counted on lies and tricks instead of negotiating with the Governor to get teachers a raise.
“Teachers have been hard at work for another week with no pay raise, all because Republicans refuse to negotiate,” said Governor Cooper. “These hardworking teachers deserve a significant raise, and we can’t continue to let our educators be undervalued and disrespected by this Republican legislature.”
The GOP budget offers teachers less than what other state employees have already gotten. Governor Cooper’s compromise proposed an 8.5% average teacher pay raise. Legislative Republicans’ budget would give teachers a grossly inadequate 3.8% raise and would make North Carolina less competitive with other states.
Legislative Republicans have refused to negotiate on a budget compromise with the Governor. Every day, they continue to play games instead of coming to the table and doing their jobs to get teachers the raises they desperately need and deserve.
Governor Cooper’s compromise offer can be found HERE. It would close the health care coverage gap, raise teacher pay, cut taxes for people and guarantee school construction while balancing the budget and saving money in the Rainy Day Fund.
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