RALEIGH – Raises for public school teachers and state employees are welcome, as is money to accommodate growing numbers of university students. So higher education leaders praised the 2018-19 state budget adopted last week by the NC General Assembly. The budget “builds on the UNC System’s strongest budget in a decade and provides an additional… READ MORE
Spellings: ‘Pleased but not satisfied’
CHARLOTTE – North Carolina has built one of the finest university systems in the nation, University of North Carolina System President Margaret Spellings said Monday. But it can be better. “As I like to say, we’re pleased but not satisfied,” Spellings told an audience at UNC Charlotte in the first of a series of State… READ MORE
House Speaker Moore: ‘The single greatest priority we have’
WINSTON-SALEM (Feb. 28, 2018) – NC House Speaker Tim Moore voiced broad support for public education at a special gathering this week. “When it comes to our state budget, education is the single largest item, because it’s the single greatest priority that we have – and we’re going to continue to fund it,” Moore told… READ MORE
Innovations for both universities and K-12
CHAPEL HILL – There’s plenty of reform underway in public education in North Carolina, and UNC System President Margaret Spellings highlights several innovations at both universities and K-12 schools in the accompanying video. • NC Promise: The NC General Assembly has committed more than $50 million to provide in-state tuition of $500 a semester “to… READ MORE
Work together to keep higher education accessible
By Paul Fulton Co-Chair Higher Education Works North Carolina’s public universities have long been considered our state’s most important asset – they offer opportunity to students from Murphy to Manteo, and in the process they serve as our state’s strongest economic driver. In fact, a study two years ago found that together, North Carolina’s public… READ MORE
BOWLES: Leading UNC into the future
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