RALEIGH – Continuing our look at North Carolina’s disinvestment in public education, a shortfall in state support has meant higher tuition and more debt for university students and fewer teachers for students in our K-12 public schools.

Though higher education is a public good that benefits us all – and our state constitution requires legislators to provide a college education for as close to free as possible¹ – there’s no question the state has shifted part of the cost of higher education to students and their families.

Adjusted for inflation, state spending per in-state student at North Carolina’s public universities has declined $2,560, or 15.6%, since 2006-07.²  Over the same period, average tuition at our public universities rose 55%.³

Since 2008-09, when tuition at our state’s public universities accounted for 27% of the tuition/state appropriations mix, tuition has grown to account for 38%.

That change in percentages might not seem dramatic, but it means North Carolina students and their families collectively pay $378 million more for a public university education now than they did in 2008-09.⁴

North Carolina once prided itself on keeping tuition and, as a result, student debt low for its college graduates.

But for many students, the tuition increases of recent years mean more debt.  From 2006-07 to 2013-14, average debt levels of graduating seniors in the UNC System rose 56%, from $15,623 to $24,358.  And the debt levels of North Carolina public university graduates are now approaching the national average.

Student debt is also more widespread:  The percentage of UNC System graduates who borrow has grown from 50% in 2009-10 to 62% in 2013-14.⁵

Those are dollars a young graduate might otherwise spend on a first car or home.

DISINVESTMENT in our K-12 public schools has consequences on university campuses as well.

As North Carolina’s rank in average teacher pay sank as low as 47^th in the nation,⁶ enrollment in UNC System schools of education fell more than 30% from 2010-2015⁷ – even as North Carolina’s population continued to grow and made it the 9^th most-populous state.

UNC campuses supply 37.5% of the state’s public school teachers and 44 percent of its beginning teachers,⁸ so the decline in enrollment in teacher-prep programs foreshadows a shortage of teachers in North Carolina.

To their credit, state legislators have acted to raise teacher pay – particularly for beginning teachers – the past three years.⁹

But we can’t stop here.  Our students – and our state’s economy – deserve more.

---

¹ http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Legislation/constitution/ncconstitution.html, Article IX, Section 9.
²http://www.ncleg.net/documentsites/Committees/HouseAppropriationsEducation/Historical%20Education%20Expenditures/Public%20Education%20Expenditures_2006-15_2016_02_16.pdf; https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
³ UNC General Administration; https://www.northcarolina.edu/infocenter; https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ http://college-insight.org/#topics/go&h=667276ab8867a3273fadaa34a4ca7494.
⁶ http://www.higheredworks.org/2017/05/nc-education-spending/.
⁷ https://ung4.ondemand.sas.com/SASVisualAnalyticsViewer/guest.jsp?reportPath=/UNG/External+Content/Reports&reportName=TQD+Enrollment+Trends&appSwitcherDisabled=true&reportViewOnly=true.
⁸ https://ung4.ondemand.sas.com/SASVisualAnalyticsViewer/guest.jsp?appSwitcherDisabled=true&reportViewOnly=true&reportPath=/UNG/External%20Content/Reports&reportName=NCTeachers.
⁹ http://www.higheredworks.org/2017/05/nc-education-spending/.