RALEIGH (October 18, 2024) – NC Promise – which promises $500-a-semester tuition at four UNC System campuses – appears to be working.
The North Carolina General Assembly – which failed to adopt an updated budget this year – does not.
An annual report on NC Promise, which began in Fall 2018 at Western Carolina University, UNC Pembroke and Elizabeth City State and added Fayetteville State in 2022, shows growth in enrollment at three of the four institutions at a time when many universities worry about declining enrollment:
- Elizabeth City State has seen 57% growth;
- Fayetteville State has seen 10% growth in just two years;
- Western Carolina has seen 8% growth; and
- UNC Pembroke has seen a 3% decline.
“This program accommodates 21,000 students across those four institutions,” said Jennifer Haygood, Chief Financial Officer for the UNC System. But the cost for $2,500-a-semester tuition for out-of-state students has risen from 26% of the cost to 45%, she said.1
“The market has responded to what we’re offering,” Haygood told the UNC Board of Governors’ Budget and Finance Committee.
At Elizabeth City State, said BOG member Art Pope, out-of-state enrollment has exceeded projections due to the university’s proximity to the Virginia border. Former System President Margaret Spellings liked to point out that a student from Virginia could spend less on out-of-state tuition at Elizabeth City than on in-state tuition in Virginia.
And this year, because our dysfunctional state legislature failed to adopt an updated state budget, the program will cost $78.6 million and funds for it will fall short by $6.4 million due to the increase in enrollment, but no increase in state funds.
Some Promise.
Among the options, Haygood said, the legislature could increase its appropriation for NC Promise. The UNC Board of Governors could consider increasing NC Promise tuition. Legislators could also consider increasing NC Promise tuition for out-of-state students.
BOG Member Harry Brown – a former majority leader and chief budget negotiator in the state Senate – said he thinks the legislature will make up the difference.
“I feel pretty confident that if we ask for the money, the General Assembly will find the money,” Brown said.
Then why haven’t they?
NC Promise was a step toward fulfilling the North Carolina constitution’s promise that the General Assembly will provide the state’s citizens with higher education for “as far as practicable … free of expense.”2 It was a very good move.
But if North Carolina legislators make a promise and label a program a “Promise,” they need to keep that promise.
1 https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=68212&code=bog, pp. 7-22.
2 https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Constitution/NCConstitution.html, Article IX, Section 9.
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