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Cooper announces $3 million in teacher licensure assistance; continues to lobby for public education investment

Governor Roy Cooper is directing $3 million toward helping to cover teacher licensure costs. This comes as the governor is urging lawmakers not to shortchange public education.

Cooper announced last Thursday that $3 million in federal funding would be used to help aspiring educators become fully licensed teachers in North Carolina.

The money would be applied to help cover the costs of licensure exams and preparation. According to a news release, the cost of an exam in North Carolina can average $450 or more, with the fee escalating if a candidate needs to retake the test.

The initiative stems from a partnership between the governor’s office, the state Department of Public Instruction, and TeachNC, which provides one-on-one support for aspiring teachers.

The announcement came a day after Cooper sent a letter to state lawmakers urging them to invest in North Carolina’s public school system.

The governor has been critical of a legislative plan to expand the eligibility for private school vouchers, saying it would exacerbate a teacher shortage and starve funding for early childhood education and child care.

In the letter, Cooper also presses lawmakers to keep political culture wars out of the classroom and leave it to educators and parents to determine the curriculum.  

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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