RALEIGH – Members of the joint House-Senate appropriations committee Thursday proposed a 5 percent increase in community college tuition to help fund additional programs within the system.
If approved, the rate increase would be the first since 2005. It would provide $6 million of additional revenue.
The tuition hike was included in the spending report of the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. It includes what areas the joint committee intends to fund and how much. Now, the committee will split to work on appropriation matters in their separate chambers. House members are expected to release a budget document by May.
Jennifer Haygood of the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division told members that the increase would be a $64 increase over a year (or $2 per credit hour) for in-state students. That would increase the in-state tuition to $1,328, up from the current $1.264.
The system would still have the lowest tuition among community colleges that are members of the Southern Regional Education Board, the higher education accrediting board for the Southeast. Texas has the next lowest at $1,430 among community colleges.
Out-of-state students attending community colleges would experience a $352 increase (or $11 per credit hour) if the plan is approved. Tuition for the year would be $7,376. Currently, out-of-state students pay $7,024 per year.
Increasing tuition was necessary to provide funding for several programs within the community college system that otherwise would not have been funded, according to the Fiscal Research Division. That is because the target budget for education spending only allowed $7 million for expansion programs for the entire system.
In all, the subcommittee’s target for total education spending (which includes the Department of Public Instruction, community colleges, and the university system) was $10.969 billion. That is $84.7 million more than the $10.884 billion in education spending included in the governor’s budget requested. Most of the available money went to programs through the Department of Public Instruction.
Members were left with the task of cutting items from the governor’s budget. Sixteen programs that the governor had proposed were cut in the committee’s report including $3.5 million in recurring funds for more counselors to help students.
Eleven UNC programs proposed by the governor were not included in the subcommittee’s report. That includes $8.2 million in total spending for UNC Online, an initiative to promote and create a central access point for UNC’s online education programs.
Legislators opted to fund Easley’s much-discussed EARN Scholars program for low-wealth students. Instead of funding the first year of the program in 2007, legislators shifted the funding to start in 2008, since that is when students would be enrolled for courses. They also chose to fully fund the program from Escheats Fund, which includes money from unclaimed property and bank accounts.
House members will look at programs that were not included in the subcommittee report when they meet Monday. The programs, which some legislators referred to as the “B List,” could find a way back into the budget depending on the availability of additional resources.