Lieutenant governor sends budget email to teachers around the state

In the governor's letter, Cooper asked teachers to reach out to lawmakers to help break the logjam between him and the General Assembly's Republican majority. The letter prompted criticisms and a question: Is it appropriate for an elected official to reach out, on official letterhead, using state email addresses, to every school in the state?

Forest's letter went to email addresses for every public school teacher in the state, spokesman Jamey Falkenbury said. Asked where the address list came from, Falkenbury simply said Forest is on the State Board of Education and that the addresses "are in the public domain."

Forest, a Republican, is running for governor.

Forest's letter walks teachers through nearly a decade of budget history, pointing out that the Democrats then in control of state government cut education funding and froze teacher salaries following the Great Recession. Republicans, Forest said, built teacher salaries back up after they took control.

Then he ticked off some metrics: North Carolina teacher pay now ranks second in the Southeast, and, from 2014 to 2018, it was the third-fastest-rising average salary in the country by percentage, according to calculations by the General Assembly's Fiscal Research Division.

"Please know that we will continue to fight for increased teacher compensation and overall public education funding just as we have done for the past six years," Forest said in his letter. "We will continue to do so in a balanced approach that ensures government is not overspending, and we are prepared for any downturns in the economy."

Teachers got their step increases earlier this year, but additional percentage raises have been delayed as Republicans joust with the governor over the budget. Cooper has pressed the majority to expand Medicaid in the budget, but without success. He has also called for higher raises for teachers and non-certified school employees than Republicans have been willing to fund.

The governor wants to pay for that by forgoing business tax cuts Republicans wrote into the state budget, which Cooper vetoed. Republican lawmakers have repeatedly blamed Cooper for vetoing their teacher raise proposals without pointing out that he vetoed them, at least in part, because he wants higher raises.

Forest's letter does this as well.

Falkenbury said in an email Tuesday that Forest has had a teacher email list "for some time now, and wasn’t planning to ever use them."

"Unfortunately, after the Governor blasted out a one-sided politically driven 'call to action' on official letterhead, to every single school in our state, with half-truths and no context, asking teachers to lobby General Assembly members, Lt. Governor Forest thought it only fair that our teachers be provided with actual facts to set the record straight," Falkenbury said.

Asked Tuesday whether this was a good idea – elected leaders sending these sorts of emails to an essentially captive audience – Cooper called his letter "simply another way to communicate" with educators who can help move the state's budget process along by reaching out to lawmakers.

"They need to know the truth about educator pay," Cooper said. "I need to talk to teachers. (Republicans) need to talk to teachers. We need to find a place in the middle that we can compromise, and I'm ready to do that when (the legislature comes) back in January."