RALEIGH – The state’s association of private, non-profit colleges is pushing to extend the state’s Legislative Tuition Grant program to part-time students. Hope Williams, president of the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, made the appeal at a meeting of the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee in December.
The legislative tuition grant (called NCLTG) is a popular state program that has been in effect since 1975. In 2006, the General Assembly raised the maximum grant per student from $1,800 to $1,900 per year.
The program originated in efforts to “strengthen the academic, management, and financial quality and viability of the private higher education sector,” says education researcher Nat Fullwood, In the 1970s, the University of North Carolina system was expanding rapidly and it was evident that private colleges and universities would lose students to the state system.
Thus, the purpose of the NCLTG program was to bolster private schools more than to provide financial aid. The General Assembly had already adopted a need-based financial grant program for private education in 1971. That program, the State Contractual Scholarship Fund program, also continues today.
Whether the grant actually changes decisions of students about where they attend is difficult to determine. The $1,900 cap does not begin to cover the difference between public and private tuition at most schools. Full-time tuition at North Carolina State, for example, is $4,783 per year. Tuition at private colleges is frequently over $20,000 ($21,200 at Meredith and $19,690 at Catawba, for example).
The grant program does, however, give some schools significant subsidies. In the 2005 academic year, the tuition grant program paid $48.1 million to private universities and colleges in the state, supporting 31,022 students, says the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority. This exceeded the cost of the need-based aid program, the SCSF, which supported 13,755 students at a cost of $33.7 million.
For some schools the grant was substantial. For example, Campbell University received $4.6 million; Gardner-Webb, $2.6 million; Shaw, $2.48 million; and Meredith, $2.3 million.
Expanding the program to include part-time students would add about $4.2 million, according to the figures that Williams presented to the committee. Currently, 7,500 students from North Carolina are enrolled part-time in one of the state’s 36 non-profit, private colleges and universities. Many are non-traditional students (usually defined as older than age 25). They may have family and work commitments that prevent them from carrying a full-time course load, Williams said.
“(Part-time students) shouldn’t be excluded from receiving the grant just because they are only taking two courses,” Williams said. “We want to help all the students at all of our colleges.”
Although it is popular, the tuition grant receives mixed reviews among advocates of limited government. Some oppose any subsidies to private organizations — especially since the market for higher education is a competitive one.
But others argue that the state university system, with a budget of $2.2 billion, competes unfairly with private schools, and help to those schools may be warranted. In addition, the grants lighten the burden of taxpayers who send their children to private schools but who must still help finance the state system. Roy Cordato, vice president for research at the John Locke Foundation, says that he would feel more comfortable with the grants if each dollar in grant money given to schools were linked to a reduction of a dollar from other programs in the state university budget.
The part-time issue may be discussed in the upcoming legislative session, especially since there is a precedent. In the 2006-07 budget adjustments, legislators approved an increase in both state grant programs, the NCLTG and the SCSF, to include some part-time students. Recipients must be students taking courses in order to move into teaching from another job or nurses seeking additional certification. The change cost $1.5 million, according to the budget report.