CHAPEL HILL — Higher-education institutions in North Carolina received a significant increase in funding this year as legislators approved adjustments to the fiscal 2007 budget. Gov. Mike Easley called it one of the best education budgets he has seen.
The budget adjustments were approved a few days after the start of the fiscal year and signed into law July 10. UNC’s budget was increased by $128 million to take its total appropriation to $2.2 billion. Community colleges received a funding increase of $64 million to take their total budget to more than $831 million.
The increase in education spending, when including the Department of Public Instruction, was $1.4 billion. Increases in education spending would help economic development efforts in the state, Easley said.
“Our continued commitment to progress in education, coupled with our top-ranked business climate, makes North Carolina one of the best locations to grow and expand a business not only in America but the world,” Easley said in a released statement.
However, like most government budgets, this one contains some pork-barrel projects that took advantage of the $1 billion budget surplus for this fiscal year. The surplus was used to fund programs that had not received state funding in previous years, as well as programs that fall outside the realm of education.
Among them was a $50,000 request to study whether North Carolina Wesleyan, a private college in Rocky Mount, should be added to the UNC system. The funding for the budget, according the budget provision, must come from the system’s own funds.
Rocky Mount-area legislators, who pushed for the provision, think that adding the school to the UNC system will increase economic development in the eastern part of North Carolina.
Legislators also approved a $7 million request to study plans for additions at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Dentistry as well as to provide initial investment funds for a similar school at East Carolina University. Funding for the project came out of the capital needs budget.
The state budget also included funding for a program that had lost private grant money. The DESTINY science program at UNC-Chapel Hill, a traveling science laboratory that attempts to enhance science education in schools, had been privately funded since its inception but recently lost some of its grant funding. After a presentation to the State Board of Education and others by program officials, legislators approved a $500,000 recurring budget item to make up for some of the lost funding. The $500,000 is considerably less than the initial request by Easley of $2 million.
Also, at UNC-Chapel Hill the state approved $1 million for construction of a family house for UNC Hospital that has received a large amount of private donations. The building would provide housing for families of critically ill patients at UNC Hospital. Construction fund-raising has, according to legislators, brought in $4.3 million in private funds of the needed $6.3 million.
Other projects that could be considered pork in the UNC budget was $200,000 in nonrecurring funds for the North Carolina in the World project and $500,000 for the Hunt Institute.
The North Carolina in the World attempts to improve the knowledge of the world on the part of students in K-12. It is operated through UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for International Understanding and gives teachers the resources to teach global education principles.
The Hunt Institute, a private organization named for former Gov. James Hunt, is based at UNC-Chapel Hill and, according to its Web site, “engages governors and other leaders in strategic efforts to advance and sustain state-level education reform.” The money in the budget provides operational support for the institution with nonrecurring funds.
UNC system schools were not the only ones to have a variety of pork projects in the budget. Community colleges received their fair share as well, the most prominent being a program aimed at workforce development.
Included in the community college budget was $148,470 in recurring funds and $5,000 in nonrecurring funds for two community regional customized training directors. This increases the number of directors to seven, one for each economic development region in the state, according to state budget information. Not much in the way of detail was included in the budget language other than the funds would be to enhance workforce development in some form.