Snow for Senate

Education

If anyone in North Carolina knows the need to better enhance our education system it is we of the West. Education is the keystone for our innovation today and our success for tomorrow. This is the reason that Senator Snow voted for providing $76.3 Million dollars for enrollment growth funding in this year’s state budget so that all of North Carolina can rise to the challenge of educating our children.

K-12
Senator Snow’s most important education priority during the next legislative session is to bring teachers’ salaries up to the national average. In North Carolina we must do a better job of putting top teachers in our schools while keeping the ones we currently have. The only way to do that is to pay teachers fairly. Senator Snow has worked with teachers and state officials to ensure that we are creating an environment that ensures that our best and brightest continue to rise to the top. North Carolina made good progress this year by providing:

• $90 Million for teacher bonuses
• Increasing teacher salaries 8%
• $515,115 to pay for more math and science teachers
• Eliminated a $44.3M recurring reduction in public school budgets
• 100 more teacher’s fellow scholarships

These are the steps that we need to take to ensure that we have the best learning environment for our students so they can enter a community college or university with the skills they need to build a career on.

Community Colleges
The workforce for our state is being trained in our community colleges. We need to make sure that they have the resources they need, the private partnerships to thrive, and the financial aid available to ensure that all their students can be successful and employable after their studies. To help further these goals Senator Snow voted to increase community college enrollment funding by $7.1 Million and set aside an additional $2 Million in the event that there is extra enrollment at our community college campuses this year. Additionally, the community colleges will have additional staff in place to make sure that more students will be able to get the financial aid they need to further their education.

University System
After working for twelve years in our public schools students need an accessible and affordable place to continue their education. Senator Snow voted time and again to create an university system in which students can attend a campus based on what they want to study – not based on what they can afford.

During the last several years the federal government has cut financial aid for college students. In response to this Senator Snow voted to put $21 Million aside for need based financial aid for UNC system students. This will increase the funds needed for 35,000 students currently on financial aid and provide financial help for 1,730 new students entering college this fall.