Americans used to save for college; moves toward making it free are not progress

I am strongly committed to higher education, especially in the sciences and math where we are lagging other countries. I also understand that there are students of limited means, and they need a hand up in life. But we seem to no longer draw rational lines between serious students who need assistance, and the many non-serious students who squander it.


How the president’s "free community college" proposal will affect one state

The new federal proposal that the president is calling "America’s College Promise" is short on details but has inspired much commentary.

We’ll hear more on Tuesday in the State of the Union address and in President Obama’s next budget proposal, but he gave us enough information about the idea in a speech for us to estimate the potential program’s cost to North Carolina taxpayers.





New Era Looms for Community College System

The North Carolina Community College System is choosing a successor to H. Martin Lancaster, its current president, who will step down in May 2008. In a series of meetings, the search committee has solicited public comment about the “qualifications and characteristics” needed by the next president.

The July 11 meeting in Raleigh, chaired by Norma B. Turnage, vice chair of the committee, was low-key, with only eight commentators. But enough issues surfaced to suggest that the next president will face some troublesome conflicts.


Do Sports Programs and Community Colleges Mix?

Community colleges are and supposed to be an educational stepping stone for people who didn’t make much of their K-12 years or find that they need to learn a new skill if they are to find a new job. The idea that those schools would become more effective in their role by adding organized sports programs seems strange. Quite a few of them are doing so, however.

Are community colleges and sports programs a sensible mix?


Community Colleges Make Case for Bigger Salaries

Anticipating a bumpy financial road during the next session of the General Assembly, leaders for the North Carolina Community College System this week couched their request for more money to boost faculty and staff salaries in careful terms.


Community Colleges to Examine “Critical Needs”

Members of the State Board of Community Colleges met today to begin developing a proposal for financing capital needs at the state’s community college campuses. The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) announced last Friday that they would partner with UNC to create a funding package that would address both systems’ capital needs.