alumni Digest, Vol 39, Issue 5

[Nick Gorton]

 Hi Scott,

The question is not just 'does it work' but rather 'is this the best way to
spend X dollars to accomplish our stated goal.' Lets assume politics don't
exist and no one supporting this bill is doing so for less than noble
reasons. So what is the stated goal of this particular entitlement? Keep
smart kids who are already college bound in NC. Even if you take Douglass'
statements at face value, the portion of kids for whom this will mean the
difference between attending college and not attending is tiny at a school
where the median family income is 80K. Plus those few kids would also
benefit from any means tested entitlement anyway.

However, even assuming this goal, I don't think a blanket entitlement is the
best way to use that money. We don't need to target all kids from science
and math, but only those for whom that $3500/year would be a significant
differential benefit that would make them attend a UNC system school instead
of Harvard. If you have one kid and make $200,000 a year, $3500 is not going
to make you willing to send your kid to a college that is not their first
choice. So giving that kid free tuition is wasteful at best. Kids from
wealthier families may go to UNC, but not because they choose to do so out
of financial necessity.

So a better use of the funds would be a means-tested entitlement. Graduates
of NCSSM whose families make <=6xFPL would qualify. The remainder of the
money would go to providing a scholarship for needy and talented kids from
NC who didn't attend NCSSM.

But then that wouldn't get you points with wealthy political donors whose
kids attend NCSSM; and while I am willing to accept that politicians have
noble motives for the sake of this discussion, they generally don't.

Nick


Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:22:10 -0400
> From: "S.D. Rhodes" <rhodent at ipass.net>
> Subject: Re: An article from The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
> To: "alumni at ncssm.net" <alumni at ncssm.net>
> Message-ID: <200704110327.l3B3RBig026867 at mail.portbridge.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> >Interesting topic.  Can anyone provide the statistics of how
> >many NCSSM students avail themselves of this offer?
>
> According to the article, an average of of 82% of NCSSM grads have gone
> to UNC system schools since 2004, compared to 55% before.  So find out
> what the average size of graduating classes has been and there's your
> answer.
>
> To me, the question is not whether this is "fair" (although in my
> opinion it is...it's not like those "bright students at other schools"
> couldn't have applied to NCSSM themselves) or what the state "owes"
> anyone.  Those weren't the reasons why the state created the tuition
> break.  They created it in hopes that more grads would make their
> careers in North Carolina instead of other states.  So the question is,
> is it working?  Considering the fact that no one has had time to go
> through four years of college since this passed, there's no way anyone
> can have the answer to this.  If it turns out in five or ten years that
> it isn't making a difference, then by all means get rid of it.  But
> getting rid of it now is premature.
>
> -Scott D. Rhodes
> c/o '88
>
>
>
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