NC House Moves to Strengthen Community Colleges

(Originally posted on The Progressive Pulse, a North Carolina blog.)

The ongoing weakening of North Carolina's labor market has placed unanticipated demands on the community college system and has exacerbated many long-standing challenges. Although modest in scope, the proposed House budget contains provisions that would help the community colleges address certain short- and long-term obstacles.

Overall, the House proposal would add $33.2 million ($26 million in recurring dollars, $7.2 million in non-recurring ones) to the budget approved in 2007. This 4 percent increase would bring the total state appropriation to $932.8 million. (Community colleges also receive local funds and tuition receipts.)

Most importantly, the budget would provide an additional $23.8 million in recurring funds to accommodate unexpected enrollment growth. Due to recent economic conditions, actual enrollment has exceeded budgeted levels by 3 percent, meaning that the colleges are serving students for whom state funds were not allocated. The House budget would provide funding in FY 2009 that accounts for all of that increase. Furthermore, the House proposal would provided $2.5 million in non-recurring funding to support the system's enrollment growth reserve fund, which exists to help meet unanticipated enrollment increases.

The House budget also would use the following measures to begin to address, albeit on a limited scale, several long-standing issues:

1) Adding recurring dollars to better support high-cost allied health programs (+$4 million).

2) Appropriating recurring funds to renew technical education programs in construction, engineering, industrial and transportation fields (+$1 million).

3) Providing non-recurring funds to support and expand a minority male mentoring program designed to improve educational outcomes (+$1 million).

Many of the provisions associated with the House budget also aim to address perennial issues. For example, the House would require the preparation of a report clearly assessing differences in instructional costs. Moreover, the House would direct the community colleges to develop a new formula for financing basic skills programs and would authorize a study of financial aid programs and how they could more effectively serve non-traditional students.