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Our children isn't learning

Members of the N.C. House Education Appropriations Committee will be gathering at 8:30 this morninbudget, higher education, legislature, N.C. Legislature, North Carolina, public schools, taxes, Tony Rand, UNC, where they will sit with grimly terrified expressions as legislative budget analysts describe the gathering fiscal apocalypse.

The state's public colleges will be in the crosshairs this morning; community colleges and public schools went through the wringer yesterday.

There's no way around it: with a multi-billion dollar budget gap to fill, the state is almost certainly going to be laying off teachers and eliminating perfectly good educational programs.

And, just as certainly, legislators and interest groups will be making the case for an overhaul of the state's tax system. At the end of yesterday's hearing, lawmakers and lobbyists alike were already mumbling about the need to "address the revenue side of the picture" (i.e. raise taxes).

The atmosphere in the hearing room yesterday was a bit surreal. Having spent the last several years lavishing plentiful tax dollars on new programs and subsidies for favorite causes, legislators now have to sit soberly as budget writers read out a casualty list.

4,500 teaching assistants. An online program to earn college credit in high school. Tuition vouchers for community college staff.

Some of the items on the chopping block are overdue for a trim. The House has proposed eliminating a literacy program that, as it turns out, doesn't teach students to read (the budget analyst revealed that students in the literacy program actually performed worse than similar students not in the program).

And the University system will likely be losing a subsidy for out-of-state students on full scholarship. Under a scheme derisively known as "Honorary Tar Heels," students from outside North Carolina who won full scholarships -- either for sports or academics -- were magically reclassified as state residents, reducing the cost of their tuition by thousands of dollars and costing the state millions each year.

That gem of an idea was slipped into the budget a few years ago by Sen. Majority Leader Tony Rand. It'll be interesting to see if the proposal to eliminate it makes it through the Senate, now that it's clear the state cannot afford generous taxpayer donations to athletic foundations and prestigious private scholarships.

But the elimination of extraneous programs won't come close to solving North Carolina's looming budget disaster. Cuts to the very core of the state's educational mission, from classroom teachers to need-based tuition aid, are coming.

If the House budget is any guide, the gaping chasm between the state's obligations and its actual capacity to pay is going to move quickly from an abstract number to a wrenching reality.

Article originally published at http://www.collegepulse.net/2009/05/members-of-n.html
Copyright 2009 - The College Pulse Network - CollegePulse.net

About the Author

Eric Johnson is a CollegePulse.net contributing writer.

The College Pulse Network is composed of young media professionals from across the United States who give commentary on current events and how they affect the world's newest generations.

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