North Carolina state lawmakers returned to Raleigh on Wednesday for the start of the General Assembly’s short session. The Republican-controlled legislature’s goals including passing a budget adjustment bill.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters what he wants in that budget an hour before the House and Senate sessions began. He called for an 8.5% teacher pay raise this year and a $1,500 retention bonus. Cooper also wants to restore master’s degree pay for teachers.
The legislature is working with a $1.4 billion revenue surplus this year as it makes adjustments to the state’s $30 billion spending plan.
Republicans have already said they want to increase the raises for state employees and teachers as well as adding more funding for private school tuition scholarships with taxpayer money.
Cooper opposes the private school scholarships.
“They can choose desperately needed investments to educate our children and our workforce, along with tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses. Or they can choose tax giveaways for corporations and the wealthy and keep robbing taxpayer money from public schools to fund private school vouchers,” Cooper said in a news conference at the Albemarle Building in downtown Raleigh.
He called past teacher pay raises “mediocre.” Cooper’s budget proposal also requests funding for more teacher assistants and an expansion of teaching fellow scholarships “to encourage more young people to become teachers.”