Intersting article today in my hometown’s local newspaper. You see, I live in NC — yes that state that devastate education, made it hard to vote and impossible for highschoolers to register, closed down polling stations, and decided we had too many teachers that were paid too much. Then of course there was HB2 — Hate Bill 2 as it is called here, passed in the dead of night with no discussion or debate, just a government peering into our bathroom habits for us. Well it seems like it is time for a little good news for McCrory and his entrenched henchmen (I honestly don't know why they bother, its not as though we could vote them out). And, of course the state’s newspaper-ministry of truth- steps in to help out. it was announced today that the state’s GOP was all about making college affordable for all North Carolinians. The bill now before the senate is as follows:
Five state universities: Elizabeth City, Fayetteville State, Western Carolina, Pembroke (?), and Winston Salem State, will have their tuition capped at $1000/semester. All fees will be lowered by 30% and no fee can be raised more than 3% in a given year. Naturally a few of these schools will have to have their names changed (Reagan Tech maybe?)
Secondly, 2 universities will add 50 scholarships for minority students each year — full ride. They are North Carolina Central, and North Carolina A&T. This is 200 full ride scholarships at each of the universities once they are filled. The senate put aside a full funding of $3M for this — $1.5M for each school.
Sounds great eh? Well yes until you read the fine print. You see it is NOT the intention of the senate to provide any more money to the schools than has already been mentioned above! Yep thats right, it is a reduction in operational expenditures of more than 40% or so. Curiously, the state’s research schools are not mentioned? UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-C, UNC-W, UNC-G, NC State. Wonder what could be the differences between these schools and the ones chosen for this honor of operating with less money? Well as it turns out, all but 2 are HBCUs, the very same schools that the senate has called to shut down or consolidate (thats their word for it). And what about the other 2, Pembroke is a Native American serving school, and Western Carolina is our local extension of Greenpeace. These schools have suffered with underfunding for some time now. Under Perdue they got a little help, but under the new GOP “leadership” well not so much. And the sad thing is that the educational outcomes of these schools are very good. They don't get anywhere near the resources of the research schools but are able to produce excellent graduates.
Interestingly, the newsprint article doesn't mention any of these details or the democrats efforts to get this funding in place so these schools that are working so hard don't lose it. Now I am all for making things cheaper for students. But lets make no mistake here, that is not what this is about at all, and it is repellent to see the press play this up as a “education-centered” GOP effort. The game isn't over, and as I said the Dems are trying to get funding provisions added, but they will never be recognized for it here in the south.