Politicization

A new study comparing faculty compensation in the University of North Carolina system with peer institutions around the country will be released on Wednesday, May 9, at 11:00 a.m. at a press conference in the Legislative Press Room.

The study is published by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and written by Jon Sanders, a policy analyst and research editor with the John Locke Foundation. Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-District 26) will host the press conference.

It’s happening beneath the radar of most media and the public, but it is a major conflict, nonetheless. The prize that is being fought over is accreditation – who decides which schools are “good enough” so that their students can receive federal financial aid (such as Pell grants).

Nominally, eight regional associations accredit most of the nation’s undergraduate school (they divide up the country like a cartel, says George Leef, and have little competition). But dissatisfaction with these organizations is strong, especially from Department of Education secretary Margaret Spellings. She is trying to persuade the accreditors to measure student learning, rather than tally inputs such as the number of books in the library.

Harvard’s president Derek Bok has written that universities have something in common with gambling addicts and exiled royalty – there is never enough money. One reason why that’s true is that people on campus are almost always spending other people’s money and when that’s the case, there’s a strong tendency to demand all sorts of unnecessary things. After all, if available money doesn’t get spent on what you want, it will get spent on what someone else wants.

The story of the proposed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Center at NC State is a good illustration of the infighting that erupts when interest groups battle over how to spend other people’s money.

RALEIGH – A week after Gov. Mike Easley released his record-setting $20 billion budget, legislators were at work dissecting the proposal.

Members of Easley’s budget team were in the General Assembly Tuesday and Wednesday providing legislators details of the proposals included in the budget for the 2007-09 biennium. With Easley’s budget being released last Thursday, it was difficult for appropriations meeting to start until now, because members typically leave Raleigh following Thursday’s sessions.

Easley’s budget, as has been the case throughout his administration, calls for increases in the spending on education, which comprises 58 percent of the governor’s budget. The University of North Carolina would receive an appropriation of $2.7 billion, an 11.3 percent increase from the 2006-07 appropriations. The percent increase far outpaces those of other branches of governments.