The year ahead: North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger

This essay is one of a series written by Triangle leaders and experts about their visions for a new decade.

As we enter a new decade, I hope we will see continued success in making North Carolina the best state to get an education, raise a family, start a business, and retire.

There has been unprecedented economic growth since the Great Recession as the state’s economy has experienced nothing short of a substantial transformation brought about by a new direction in tax, regulatory, and education policies championed by conservative legislators. I can only hope the policies that fostered our current economic prosperity continue in effect and that people and employers continue to locate, grow, and expand here. We need the prosperity and expanded opportunities in our urban centers to spread to all of North Carolina, so more people can benefit from the thousands of jobs created and filled in just the last five years, and all Carolina households experience the rates of income growth seen in our growing areas.

I believe the coming years will continue to see budget priorities and prudent policy choices in education further enabling parents to have a meaningful voice in what school their child attends and a commitment to do everything possible to enable all third graders to be proficient readers. I hope the new decade will further close the high school graduation gap between our black students and their peers. North Carolina is on the right path going into 2020, and as the year closes out, I hope we will sustain our positive trajectory.

Senate leader Phil Berger is a Rockingham County Republican and an attorney.

This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "The year ahead: North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger."