By Catherine Truitt

Special to the Post

Since he entered office in January 2013, Gov. Pat McCrory has made advancing our education system one of his top priorities. As the calendar turns to 2017, the governor has achieved each of the goals he set out to accomplish, leaving our teachers, administrators, students and facilities in far better shape than he found them.

North Carolina now has the highest graduation rate in state history at 85 percent, and elementary school reading scores have significantly improved due to funding for smaller class sizes and reading coaches in the early grades.

Governor McCrory’s commitment to teachers is unwavering. Since he entered office in 2013, North Carolina has invested more than $1 billion in new money for teacher pay, including the largest teacher pay increase in the nation. These investments boosted average teacher pay in North Carolina to more than $50,000 for the first time in the state’s history. The governor’s proposed budget recommendations will further increase average teacher pay to $55,000 and increase principal pay by 10 percent over the next two years.

Under the governor’s leadership, more than three times as many teachers are moving to North Carolina to teach than are leaving to teach in other states.

Additionally, the governor championed investments in school connectivity to help bridge the digital divide and enhance learning. Before January 2013, only 22 percent of classrooms in our state were connected to robust Wi-Fi and today that number has increased to 66 percent. The governor leveraged investments of more than $130 million, positioning North Carolina as one of the first states in the nation to connect all classrooms to robust Wi-Fi by 2018. Also, funding for textbooks and digital resources has tripled under this administration.

We are continuing a crucial shift toward digital learning, enabling teachers to personalize learning for every student in the classroom. Giving our teachers the technological tools to do this will ensure that all students’ needs can be met in a way not possible in the classroom of the 20th century. This administration fought for professional development funding to ensure teachers and principals will receive cutting-edge training needed to take advantage of technology’s benefits to students.

Finally, the governor championed the 67Works initiative, a five-step plan to ensure North Carolina’s workforce development needs are met by 2020 through post-secondary training and education.

These critical advancements to the structure of our education system, including historic teacher pay raises, classroom connectivity and workforce development amount to a successful four years in public education advancements under Governor McCrory.

Truitt is senior education policy adviser in the Office of the Governor.