Gov. Roy Cooper and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger took to Twitter on Tuesday to blame each other for the lack of North Carolina teacher raises.
Both Cooper and Berger want teacher raises, though they disagree on specifics. But the governor and the General Assembly are deadlocked over a budget, with Medicaid expansion the main roadblock. That means teachers have been working at last year’s wages since the school year began in August.
The Democratic governor and the Republican-dominated legislature agreed on a "mini-budget" in August that provided raises to thousands of state employees. But teachers were not among them.
Cooper tweeted Tuesday morning that legislators have “lied, cheated and taken a vacation” while teachers work without raises. He called for them to negotiate a budget that gives teachers “the significant pay raises they deserve.”
For 90 days, our educators have been at work while Republican legislators have lied, cheated and taken a vacation. It’s time for them to do their jobs and negotiate a budget that gives teachers the significant pay raises they deserve. https://t.co/H285MuevtN pic.twitter.com/lfoNJndbkJ— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) October 8, 2019
Berger fired back that Cooper has vetoed every teacher raise approved by the General Assembly. He urged Cooper to drop his “Medicaid ultimatum,” stop grandstanding and “come on over here so we can cut a deal.”
That’s just not helpful, @NC_Governor. You know full well you vetoed every teacher pay raise this legislature has passed. If it were up to you, teachers wouldn’t have gotten the pay raise they got last year... https://t.co/CQ0mGyoQHh— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 8, 2019
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