The NC State College of Education released the following statement:
The NC State College of Education will begin the 2018-19 academic year Wednesday, Aug. 22, with an expected 500 new undergraduate and graduate students — the college’s largest group of incoming students in over eight years.
The new students include an expected 141 first-year and transfer undergraduate students, which is a 29 percent increase in the number of new undergraduates from the same time last fall.
Liberals have claimed that reforms passed by the Republican-led General Assembly have discouraged college students from entering the teaching profession. But federal data suggest that enrollment declines have occurred in states with both Republican and Democratic leadership. Likewise, average teacher compensation does not appear to correlate with enrollment trends at schools of education.
Will Republicans get credit for education school enrollment spike at NC State? Probably not. Nor should they, given that students’ choice of college major is based on numerous factors and only occasionally intersect with politics.
