Governor Roy Cooper attended the state board of education meeting yesterday [Thursday] to share his thoughts on public school funding.
Cooper joined State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson at the head of the boardroom.
Cooper decried a lack of state funding for public schools by the Republican-led General Assembly. He noted that beginning teacher pay in the state has dropped to 46th in the country, and he criticized the legislature's 4 billion dollar investment in private school vouchers over the next decade.
“I am advocating and a lot of people, more and more people, are advocating that we put a moratorium on private school vouchers until we fully fund our public schools," he said.
Truitt, a Republican, responded that it's hard to write a check that says "fully funded."
She said, “While I don't disagree that we need to spend more, it's how we spend the money that matters.”
Robinson, who recently won the Republican nomination for governor, said that as he travels the state what has struck him the most is, "The amount of conversations that I've had with parents who have gotten vouchers that have literally transformed their students, their children's lives."
All three agreed that pay for public school teachers is lacking.