Current Events
News
SOURCE: News and Observer
07.20.07
Bid to end UNC tuition break advances in House
By: Jane Stancill, Staff Writer
RALEIGH - The state House gave tentative approval Thursday to a bill that would drop the free tuition deal at UNC campuses for graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics.
The bill passed 80 to 31 and is expected to win final House approval Monday. But its passage is unlikely in the Senate, where the deal was born in 2003 as a special provision in the state budget.
Included in the bill is $25,000 for the school to study an alternative tuition grant -- one that would be given only to students who agree to teach science or math in a North Carolina public school for three years after they graduate from the prestigious public boarding school in Durham.
Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat and one of the bill's primary sponsors, called that teaching requirement a compromise. "I think the 'giveback' to teach science and math in our schools ought to be what the school is about," Luebke said. He pointed out that his son, a graduate of the school, went to college outside of North Carolina but returned to teach in the Durham public schools.
Proponents of the tuition grant say it is good for the state because it rewards top students and keeps them in North Carolina. Opponents say the grants are unfair to high-achieving graduates of North Carolina's other 300-plus high schools.
So far, the law has granted free tuition to 577 Science and Math graduates at a cost to the state of nearly $1.9 million. Once fully phased in, it will cost taxpayers more than $2.7 million. Legislators have been bombarded with letters and e-mail messages from parents of students at the school who want the free tuition to remain.
Rep. Lucy Allen, a Louisburg Democrat, said the state should do everything it can to support talented students while North Carolina builds its biotechnology industry.
"This gives them an incentive to stay in North Carolina to go to our schools," Allen said. "And those who do will more than likely stay here in school and continue to contribute to society and to our future."
On Thursday, critics pointed out that Science and Math students already receive two free years of high school education at a state cost of about $47,000.
Rep. Cary Allred called the Durham institution a "special school for elitists" and charged that the school had done nothing to alleviate the state's shortage of math and science teachers. Students there already have received plenty of state support, he said.
"Their parents can afford to pay the tuition at UNC," said Allred, a Republican from Burlington.
