One of the biggest changes in the UNC budget is Gov. Mike Easley’s new EARN (Education Access Rewards North Carolina) Scholars program. Budget negotiators agreed to $27.6 million for FY 2008 and $60 million from FY 2009 to come out of the general fund.

In previous budget documents the program which would pay for two years of higher education tuition, House and Senate leaders had sought the funding to come from the Escheats Fund, contrary to Easley’s wishes that $150 million would come from the General Fund.

The program gives $4,000 per academic year to students from families making 200 percent of the poverty level of less, currently around $41,300 for a family of four. With higher education already heavily subsidized and the vast amount of federal and state financial aid already available, this could be a creation of another entitlement program for students.