By Emma Singletary Battle
President/CEO, Higher Ed Works

In a recent column titled “North Carolina ranks high in college funding,” John Hood reminds us that the N.C. Constitution requires that the benefits of our public colleges and universities “as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the state free of expense.”

Hood acknowledges that between 2008 and 2018, North Carolina legislators cut per-student funding by $2,067 (appropriating $12,496 per student in 2008 and $10,429 in 2018). He recognizes that our higher-education institutions absorbed some of this cut and passed on only $1,770 of the $2,067 to students in the way of tuition increases.

He also notes a consequence of these cuts is North Carolina’s fall in national rankings: “Having previously ranked third, North Carolina now ranks sixth in the nation in higher-education appropriations per student.” 

In Hood’s point of view, this is OK: “In recent years, North Carolina’s funding policies have become more practicable — more affordable, sustainable, and connected to reality.” In fact, he’d like to see more reform:“reducing the real cost of delivering educational services, rather than just shifting the cost from one set of pockets to another.” 

We agree with some points Hood makes:

• Yes, North Carolina’s national ranking remains among the best-funded public higher education systems in the country.
• Yes, we should always look for ways to make our higher-education systems more efficient. That is the mark of good stewardship and leadership.

But since 2008, our university campuses have been asked to cut almost $800 million in funds and our NC community colleges almost $600 million. So we disagree about our priorities going forward. 

We believe the focus should be on ensuring education excellence at a reasonable cost. Delivering a first-rate higher education experience to North Carolina citizens must be a priority we will not compromise.  

Hood summarizes well these benefits – not just to graduates, but the entire community: “When students obtain valuable knowledge, skills, and credentials, they and their families benefit in the form of higher pay, a better standard of living, and a greater sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. But other people in society can benefit, too. They can get better employees or employers, benefit from new inventions and innovations, and live in safer, healthier, and better-led communities because those communities contain more, and better-educated, college graduates.”

Having postsecondary education credentials has become more important than ever. The National Governors Association released a report last year that found: “There is consensus among experts and practitioners that postsecondary education or training is the new minimum for succeeding in today’s economy.” The report cites projections that 65 percent of jobs in the future will require higher-education credentials and concludes that “states are not currently situated to meet this minimum.”

That North Carolina has started to slip in national rankings is cause for concern.

With this in mind, what we need is legislative buy-in to shore up funding where we are doing well and address the glaring gaps where we have fallen behind. 

Faculty at our community colleges, for example, have been consistently paid below the national average and are not anywhere close to leading in the Southeast. In fact, community college faculty receive less pay on average than teachers in our K-12 system.

We must not shift our attention from attaining higher education excellence. We need outstanding, affordable education delivered in a transformational way. The state is rapidly growing. We must keep up with the growth and, on a per-student basis, adequately fund our systems of higher education as well as the strategic initiatives that make our systems great. The right levels of funding must continue while transformational improvements that will drive long-term efficiencies are designed and implemented. 

With sufficient resources, North Carolina’s institutions of public higher education will attract and retain great faculty, achieve postsecondary completion rates that lead the nation and prepare our students for the changing demands of the workforce. The stakes are too high to settle where we are now.