Avoid big problems, pull tuition bill from budget
Published June 17, 2016
Editorial by The Daily Reflector, June 16, 2016.
The N.C. General Assembly recently pulled three of the state’s historically black universities from its bill to lower tuition to $500 per semester at five North Carolina institutions. They should finish the task and pull the entire bill from the state budget.
Earlier this spring, the General Assembly introduced the legislation to dramatically lower tuition at Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, UNC-Pembroke, Winston-Salem State and Western Carolina universities. Originally Senate Bill 873, or the Access to Affordable College Education Act, the legislation is now part of the state budget, House Bill 1030.
With the three HBCUs included in the proposal — Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State and Winston-Salem State — removed from the legislation, advocates for the two colleges remaining on the list — UNC-Pembroke and Western Carolina University — also say they want the plan done away with completely.
Give them what they ask for.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Western Carolina graduate, has drawn widespread criticism for not considering the wider view of how targeting specific institutions for lowered tuitions could impact their public images.
Apodaca said the campuses were chosen on a geographical basis to boost enrollment by luring both in-state and out-of-state students with low tuition.
But it was instantly clear to most university officials and alumnae that the move would have the opposite effect, by giving the universities the mistaken appearance of being a fiscally unstable institution offering a poor product.
Others pointed to another obvious consequence, that lowered tuition is lowered revenue, impacting not just the universities, but the communities whose economies are driven by them.
Apodaca said the General Assembly would commit to up to $70 million per year to continue financing programs affected by tuition reductions.
If the state wants to help with tuition costs, it can drop that $70 million per year commitment into the back end of education costs to make loan payments more affordable. But as for that, the senator admitted that the current body has no authority over the actions of future legislators.
The whole idea is so clearly flawed, more cynical observers might believe there was more to it than Apodaca’s good intentions. One of the universities’ graduates made this point: “I’m concerned about the guise of cutting costs, and making it affordable, when in essence we will be back here two years from now, begging to stay alive,” said Winston-Salem alumna Shanta Jackson of Raleigh.
“If you’re not even funding the public schools, how are you going to fund the colleges?” said UNC-P alumna Jessica Hayes. ”It just is so flaky.”
Indeed.
If they really want to help, Apodaca and his colleagues can focus on making sure that graduates have well-paying jobs waiting for them to earn the cost of their educations.
Stay tuned for K-12 reform.
