But all 21 Senate Democrats voted no to the teacher pay raise, maintaining Cooper’s veto of the bill, Senate Bill 354. SB 354 would have raised teacher pay 3.9% in year one and an additional 4.4% in year two, with a contingency that Senate Democrats joined in overriding of the governor’s budget veto. On July 9, Cooper announced a new offer of an 8.5% teacher pay raise over the next two years and passing Medicaid expansion. The Senate Democrats refused, voting down the bill along party lines. North Carolina has raised the average teacher pay roughly 20% since 2014, which is the third-highest set of pay increases in the country.