The House Appropriations Committee meets this morning to consider additional changes that were made to their proposed budget.
Apparently late last week it was brought to their attention that a significant cut to the budget which would have reduced the school day by 5 days and 10 days was unconstitutional. According to committee chair, Rep. Bruce Goforth (D-Buncombe), our state constitution mandates that there be 1,000 hours or 180 days of instruction in K through 12. So they have eliminated that provision and the new budget makes up for those cuts elsewhere in the education budget.
Additional cuts are made to many programs and some are now eliminated. Some of those include:
-Drop out grants were reduced $1 M to $13 M
-University tuition will be increased $200 per student or 8 percent, whichever is lower.
-In state scholarships to out of state athletes (also known as the Rams Club schloarships) are eliminated.
-Every university center will be cut 20 percent unless their funding is tied to a grant or federal matching money.
NCGA staffer, Richard Bostic says every center received a thorough review, something that to his knowledge has never been done. This affects 275 Centers whose total budget is over $600 M. The reduction in their funding frees up about $124 M.
The committee discussion is about specific programs and several members suggest further cuts to the drop out grants to move the money to other areas – classroom supply funds and national board fees. The grants started out with $7 funding, last year $15. The gov proposed $6.7M, the Senate $1 M and the House started at $14 and reduced to $13 today. This is Speaker Joe Hackney’s pet project. See Terry’s work on the grants here.
Rep. Cullie Tarleton ( D-Wautaga) asks about reducing teacher salaries and was told that would be a decision for the “big chairs”. In other words, many of the budget decisions will be made behind closed doors by a few select legislators.
