Rep. Dale Folwell (R-Forsyth), co-chairman of the House Finance Committee, makes a key point about expectations for the use of public funds.
“Our University system is one of those core responsibilities,” he said. “If any additional money were to come in, that would be one area that would be looked at.”
But the state’s budget shortfall has weighed on the minds of legislators who say excessive spending in previous years must be curtailed.
Every item funded by state appropriations must be streamlined and held accountable — including higher education, Folwell said.
He said the National Conference of State Legislatures ranks the state’s budget crisis as one of the five worst in the country.
“The years of spray and pray — we can’t do that anymore,” Folwell said. “We just can’t spray money on something and hope that it works.
“We have to pay for performance and not just collaboration,” he said. “Our focus has to be on the fact that the number one natural resource in our state is brains.”
Rep. Folwell’s statement jumped out at me, especially in light of this piece about the workload of UNC System faculty, written by Jay Schalin. He writes that the system told legislators the average number of classes professors teach in a semester is 3.37. But is that accurate? It’s an important point since requiring professors to take on an additional class can save millions.
