W ith the release of Gov. Pat McCrory’s latest budget proposal for the next two fiscal years, the governor made clear, yet again, that he does not value higher education enough to give North Carolina’s public universities the funding they need to keep their falling standards afloat.
UNC-system schools have seen their faculty retention rates decline, their tuitions increase and their projects delayed or canceled over the last several years.
Despite all that, McCrory’s proposal calls for an additional 2 percent cut for the UNC system. The greatest weight would likely fall on UNC-CH in the form of a 5 percent cut in the University’s funding.
McCrory’s stinginess does not come as a surprise, but if adopted, his budget would be a travesty. Unfortunately, recent history suggests the N.C. General Assembly will not be any more friendly to the state’s institutions of higher learning than the governor. The modus operandi of the last few years of state governance has been to start low with educational funding and then go lower.
State budget director Art Pope also reflected these penny-pinching views when, in March, he called the 11.3 percent budget increase asked for by the UNC-system Board of Governors’ budget proposal unrealistic. The $288 million the BOG asked for would only represent a restoration of a portion of the nearly half a billion dollars cut from the UNC system since 2011.
The governor has justified these proposed cuts by saying they are necessary compromises. His budget instead would give miserly raises in K-12 teacher pay.
When McCrory, Pope and the General Assembly set up these false choices, they attempt to frame themselves as serious men making difficult choices and fighting hard for the welfare of N.C.’s citizens.
In reality, they created the circumstances that force the difficult decisions they speak about as they gut public education. They act as if the tax code they passed into law is an unchangeable fact of life. This is not the case. A return to a more reasonable tax code would allow for substantial increases in funding for public education at all levels.
The vision they present is false, one where N.C.’s system of public education cannot offer quality learning to every citizen who resides here. North Carolina can have it all, but it is clear inadequate leadership in state government cannot take the state where it needs to go.
