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Local state representative Jake Johnson responds

RALEIGH—North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the teacher pay raise bill last week, saying he wants to negotiate for higher raises later. 

Cooper calls the raises inadequate and said it is clear to him that legislators want to do this, but the state should not accept the “paltry” raises when the state has an opportunity to do more. 

The North Carolina General Assembly approved teacher pay raises of 3.9 percent over two years, which included step increases for longevity. The bill also included a 2-percent pay raise for non-instructional staff. 

North Carolina Rep. Jake Johnson (R), from Polk County, said Cooper’s calling of the 4.4 percent pay raise “paltry” is insulting and he thinks the veto shows how blatantly out of touch the Governor is with working North Carolinians.

“He reminds me of Nancy Pelosi saying that thousands of dollars that Americans received as a result of the tax cuts were ‘pathetic’ and ‘crumbs,’” Johnson said. “The political elite that make statements like that obviously do not understand what a difference that these types of bonuses and pay increases can have in peoples’ lives.”  

Cooper said he would negotiate pay raises separately from Medicaid expansion. 

The North Carolina Association of Educators released a statement that the group stands behind Cooper’s veto. 

“North Carolina educators rejected the Republican budget as anemic and insulting in June, and we reject essentially the same today,” NCAE President Mark Jewell said. “We stand behind Governor Cooper’s veto of this bill, and demand the leaders in the General Assembly stop wasting time on failed veto overrides and unpopular corporate tax cuts and start spending time doing the hard work of governing. Educators, students, and families have been waiting and watching since January, and it is past time for Republican leadership to work in good faith towards the public education priorities they (purport) to embrace,” Jewell said.

“Of course I believe that our teachers deserve a pay increase, and furthermore I would have loved to have seen the Governor sign this budget so that the teachers could receive that money before the holiday season,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, he has chosen to play politics and veto any pay raises for teachers. Despite what the Governor and certain interest groups say, the vast majority of educators who have reached out to me have been grateful for our efforts to get them a raise.”

Johnson said the reality is that under a conservative legislature, teachers have received a pay raise every year since 2014 and North Carolina has passed 18 states on its way to becoming the 3rd fastest rising state for teacher salaries and he wants North Carolina to continue this trend instead of stalling out in political gridlock.