MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — Governor Roy Cooper (D) made a trip to Pinewood Elementary School in Mount Holly on Tuesday to talk with students and teachers about the importance of public education.
Cooper's trip Tuesday comes as the governor continues to say public education in North Carolina is facing a state of emergency.
"One of the reasons I’m spending so much time in our public schools, I want people to know about the great things that are happening there," Cooper said of his visit to the Gaston County school.
Pinewood Elementary School credits its fine arts program for part of its success. Cooper believes hands-on lessons serve as building blocks for kids.
“There's so many incidences of children not doing well in math, not doing well in reading, and then they come upon the arts," Cooper explained. "And they find themselves and they find something good that they can do. And it gives them confidence, and they become better readers. And they become better at math because they've gotten that confidence of something that they do well."
An important piece in maintaining the success at Pinewood Elementary School is keeping quality educators inside the classrooms. The governor plans to expand the success he sees to other schools throughout the state. Cooper's approach includes improving pay for teachers to help maintain talented staffers.
“One of the things we could do to improve is to pay our educators more substantially," he said. "It's unfortunate. I proposed an 18% pay raise for our educators over the next two years. The general assembly did 7%. That's not enough. We need to make sure that we have the best."
Cooper feels an issue like teacher pay should be a unified solution.
"We need to approach public education in a bipartisan way," he said.
Cooper hopes to recruit more educators and fill the thousands of open teacher vacancies across the state. The governor said the state has over 3,000 open positions.
“I think it's imperative that we must put public schools first and that includes early childhood education, quality childcare, K through 12, community colleges and universities, he said. "Education — cradle to career — is how we succeed as a state.”
Contact Myles Harris at mharris5@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.