By Erskine B. Bowles President Emeritus University of North Carolina We North Carolinians are blessed to have a high-achieving, diverse University system that is admired not just across our country, but around the world. A 2015 analysis concluded our public universities generated $27.9 billion in additional income for North Carolinians.1 The 17 public universities that… READ MORE
“Free” community college?
Our neighbors in Tennessee invented “free” community college. In 2014, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam launched the Tennessee Promise – two years of tuition-free community college for Tennessee high school graduates. Tennessee uses lottery money to create a “last-dollar” scholarship that pays a student’s tuition after federal and other aid have been tapped.1 More than 33,000… READ MORE
No “typical” college student
No longer is the “typical” college student necessarily a fresh-faced high-school graduate who immediately zips through four years at State U. and enters the work force. That “typical” student, in fact, is harder and harder to define. Some 40% of college students today are 25 or older.1 And in the last 10 years, the number of… READ MORE
SPELLINGS: Strengthening NC’s Education Continuum
University of North Carolina President Margaret Spellings made the following remarks Thursday, Aug. 10 at the North Carolina Chamber’s 2017 Conference on Education. Thank you so much for welcoming me this morning, and thank you for focusing attention on a core issue for North Carolina’s competitiveness and quality of life. Over the past few weeks,… READ MORE
The good and bad of the 2017-19 state budget
RALEIGH (June 28, 2017) – Today the NC General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the 2017-19 state budget that legislators approved last week. To be sure, there are things to like in the budget. There are raises for public school teachers of almost 10% over two years. There’s partial restoration of the NC… READ MORE
NC budget: Positive short-term, threatening long-term
RALEIGH (June 22, 2017) – At first glance, the budget compromise unveiled this week by legislative leaders seems encouraging. It would grant K-12 public school teachers an average raise of 3.3% this year and 9.6% over two years. It would give significant raises to K-12 principals, a priority of the group BEST NC. It would… READ MORE
State budget proposals: Still not enough
RALEIGH (June 7, 2017) – When it comes to higher education in North Carolina, budget proposals adopted in recent weeks by the NC Senate and NC House both have their strengths and flaws. By stifling the urge to keep cutting taxes, the budget proposed in March by Gov. Roy Cooper would do more for higher… READ MORE
Spellings: “Make higher education our higher expectation”
CHAPEL HILL – It seems so simple – yet not everyone seems to get it. “A better educated state benefits us all,” begins Higher Expectations, the University of North Carolina System’s new strategic plan for 2017-22. “That basic truth has guided North Carolina for centuries. It drives our commitment to public education, including our constitutional… READ MORE
Educate for jobs or life? Spellings: “Both of those things.”
CHAPEL HILL – Anyone who’s taken the SAT knows that sometimes the answer is “all of the above.” And that’s how University of North Carolina President Margaret Spellings responds in the accompanying video when asked whether universities should focus on training for specific jobs or providing a sound, flexible education. “We need to do both… READ MORE
NC’s disinvestment: More tuition, more debt, fewer teachers
RALEIGH – Continuing our look at North Carolina’s disinvestment in public education, a shortfall in state support has meant higher tuition and more debt for university students and fewer teachers for students in our K-12 public schools. Though higher education is a public good that benefits us all – and our state constitution requires legislators… READ MORE