Public schools:
NC is 6th in US for proportion of state funding that is dedicated to public schools. 90 percent goes to personnel. 100 to 150 million dollars additional funding is needed each year to pay for increased enrollment with no changes in programs. The two main factors driving cost are number of kids and teacher pay.
Issues to look for this session:
Competitive pay, differentiated pay, and working conditions for teachers. Efforts to improve the graduation rate by changing instruction delivery and high school reforms at the point they typically drop out.
Community colleges:
Community college’s funding is based on the prior year’s enrollment numbers, unlike universities and public schools that project enrollment on based on current estimates. 2001 and 2003 had big increases in enrollment, due to unemployed workers using them to re-train. This trend repeats itself every ten years. This would indicate to me that community colleges are meeting their mission. Community college in-state tuition covers 25 percent of the cost. The state picks up the rest.
Universities:
6.4 billion dollar budget ? general fund is 2.45 billion, 36 percent is in-state funds. High school graduates will increase, so demand will be heavier for universities. That assumes, of course, that most high-school graduates need to go to an NC university. 59.1 percent graduate in 6 years. Despite chuckles, efforts to get kids to graduate in 4 years have been proposed in the past. We may see it again. 18 percent is covered by in-state tuition, with the state picking up the remainder. We have the 12th lowest tuition in the US. Cap of 6.5 percent in in-state tuition has been proposed, no cap on out-of-state tuition.
