Office of the Republican Leader North Carolina House of Representatives Rep. Paul Stam 613 Legislative Office Building, Raleigh, NC 27803-5925 (919) 733-2962 - Pauls@ncleg.net A FAIR SHAKE FOR THE NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATH March 31, 2009 In 2007 I filed a bill (HB 1269) with Rep. Paul Luebke to repeal the science and math special tuition provision which was inserted into the budget in 2003. The bill passed the House by a vote of 80 to 28, but the Senate took no action. The 2003 provision allowed any graduate of the School of Science and Math to have free tuition at any of the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina. To understand this repeal some background is helpful. The repeal does not presuppose that there is anything wrong with the School of Science and Math, with its teachers, students or administration. It is a great resource for those who attend and for the state. But students and their parents need to understand some other things as well: Every student admitted to the UNC System (16 campuses) who is a North Carolina resident already has a scholarship (courtesy of the taxpayers) in the amount of approximately $12,897/year. That does not include the value of the lands and buildings which have been passed on from prior generations nor does it recognize the value of the degree to the student. Public high school students receive their education at a combined federal, state and local cost of $8,522 (average/year). Students at the North Carolina School of Science and Math receive state and federal support of $21,000/year. For undergraduate students with financial need, the UNC System offered $325 million in state and federal need-based grants and scholarships, and $2.8 million in needbased loans in 2008-2009. Undergraduate students in the UNC system also received $88 million in merit based grants, loans and scholarships in 2008-2009. There are 470 public high schools in North Carolina as well as the School of Science and Math. The provision we proposed to repeal states that the taxpayers will provide the graduates of only one of those high schools with automatic free tuition at UNC System – the School of Science and Math. That means that there are about 940 students around the state who are salutatorian or valedictorian of their high school who don’t get automatic free tuition. There are thousands of students at the other high schools whose academic record is just as good as the hundreds of students at the School of Math and Science who qualify for this special tuition waiver.
I believe that financial aid, beyond the normal state support for North Carolina residents, should either be based on financial need or, if based on merit, should be available to all North Carolina residents on a basis that does not discriminate against the graduates of the other 470 high schools in North Carolina. I am pleased that the Governor’s Budget phases out this discriminatory provision. Section 9.7(a) of Senate Bill 1093, “Appropriations Act of 2009,� would also end this provision, effective June 30, 2009. General Assembly/Science-Math Provision