Posted on 01/26/2005 3:48:58 PM PST by RepublicanReptile
Report: Tuition waiver for elite high school discriminatory
By WILLIAM L. HOLMES Associated Press Writer
The state Legislature's offer of free tuition at University of North Carolina schools to graduates of an elite public high school is disciminatory and should be repealed, according to a higher education policy group.
Last year's graduating class from Durham's North Carolina School of Science and Math was the first eligible for the tuition waivers. About 80 percent of the 290 graduates are now attending one of the 16 UNC system campuses. Not charging them tuition is costing the state about $700,000.
That's a waste of money, according to a report by Shannon Blosser and George Leef of the conservative-leaning Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
"I don't see that there's any justification for it," Leef said Wednesday, the day the General Assembly opened its 2005 legislative session. "It gives some people an advantage that isn't available to anyone else."
Science and Math was the nation's first residential public high school when it was founded a quarter-century ago.
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, sponsor of the 2003 bill that created the tuition waiver, said she hopes the state will eventually expand the program to all of the state's high schools.
"I think as a state that is something we have got to do, that is provide tuition waivers for students who are at the top 5 percent of their class ... and somehow keep them in North Carolina," she said.
"It's a known fact that if you go to school here you're much more likely to stay in state," she added. "That happens all the time with some of the out-of-state students who come to our schools."
The Pope Center report disputes claims by school officials and supporters that the free tuition offer helps Science and Math draw stronger students and that keeping those graduates at state schools benefits the North Carolina economy.
The report's authors also argue there's no payoff in enticing talented students to leave public high schools in their communities to attend Science and Math.
"Students entering the national or international labor market are not going to be limited to employment in the state where they happened to get their degrees," the report said. "Even if an NCSSM graduate chooses to save some money by going to (UNC-)Chapel Hill rather than Harvard, MIT or other top institutions, when the time comes to consider job offers, it is highly improbable that he would turn away offers from out of state simply because he graduated from UNC."
Science and Math president Gerald Boardman said school records show that 57 percent of alumni pay North Carolina taxes after they graduate. And he said the waiver has helped his school strengthen its applicant pool in recent years.
For this school year, 1,070 students applied for about 300 slots, up from the roughly 750 who applied the previous year. He expects about 1,200 applications for the coming school years.
The larger pool allows the school to admit students of a higher academic caliber, Boarman said. The average SAT of entering students this school year was 1,273, the highest in the history of the school.
"The North Carolina School of Science and Math considers the Pope Center report inflammatory and based on innuendo and undocumented sources," Boarman said. "The writer comes to conclusions without any hard evidence.
"If we had students do a school report like this, they'd probably get an F."
NC Education PING
College and work ethics go together. Let them bust their butt a little bit earning some bucks during the summer to earn some of that tuition.
And what will the eventual cost be if they go out of state to college and continue to live and work out of state? How much state income tax or property tax will the state lose over the lifetime of these gifted men and women.
How much productivity will be lost? How many spin=off jobs will not be created?
I believe we have, or had, a NC Freeper who is a student at NCSSM.
I can't recall his screen name right now.
I'll ping the NC crowd directly.
Thanks y'all!
This may be of interest to you.
However, giving priority college placement regardless of test scores to a minority students (of course excluding Asian minorities) is OK.
swaimh was his screen name.
"That's a waste of money..."
Let's see, investing $700 grand for students that will in all likelihood gross anywhere from $100-500 grand a year in income - who BTW will pay taxes in this state is a waste?
Someone's not thinking ahead, or am I wrong???
actually, the race for leadership of the coming generation is between two faiths, each with its champions.
That's certainly true. My husband got his B.S. in Electrical Engineering at University of Texas, and his M.S. at University of Tennessee. And here we are in the Greater Charlotte Urban Sprawl, confidently expecting the next move a year after we have the next baby.
On the other hand, if these students go to UNC schools and major in science and math, it might be worth the money - which the government would spend anyway! - to have some portion of the student body learning something besides leftist claptrap.
**mark
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