Legislators hear CCCC’s needs

By Katherine McDonald
Posted Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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Sanford, NC - North Carolina community colleges, including Central Carolina Community College, are doing more with less, according to Dr. Matt Garrett, CCCC president.

Inflation and the lack of state funding to keep up with it, coupled with enrollment growth, have driven down the purchasing power of community colleges, he said. North Carolina Community College System records show that state funding for educational equipment for community colleges has dropped from $340 per full-time equivalent enrollment in 1998-99 to $211 in 2007-08, even as the equipment needed has become more sophisticated and expensive.

From 2006-07 to 2007-08, state funding increased 12 percent for universities and 9.1 percent for public schools, but only 5.2 percent for community colleges, according to the N.C. Budget and Tax Center. Annual community college student tuition has increased from $600 in 2000-01 to $1,300 in 2007-08. Garrett said that this indicates that the students are providing a large portion of the limited budget increases that the North Carolina Community College System has received in recent years. The typical community college student is hard-pressed to pay for these increases and make up for the lack of adequate funding by the state, he said.

“This is killing us,” Garrett said of the funding crunch.

The president delivered the message of the need for more state funding for community colleges at a breakfast for area state legislators on Feb. 25 at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center in Sanford. Legislators attending were Sen. Bob Atwater, D-District 18 (Lee, Chatham, Durham); Rep. Jimmy Love, Sr., D-District 51 (Lee and Harnett); and Sen. Harris Blake, R-District 22 (Harnett and Moore).

Statewide, community colleges have a critical need for more facilities, Garrett told the legislators. He said that the 58 member colleges of the North Carolina Community College System plan to request a statewide community college bond referendum for capital construction costs.

Love said that if a capital bond were approved by the legislature, it would likely include public school construction. Garrett agreed school construction is also a great need.

In Lee County, CCCC needs $8 million to build a new facility to replace the rented, dilapidated Jonesboro Center, where adult education, basic skills and human resources development classes are held. It also needs $7.3 million for a new Allied Health Complex. Both facilities would be built on land purchased in 2006 and added to the Lee County Campus.

The Harnett County Campus also needs $7.3 million for an Allied Health/Science Building. The Chatham County Campus needs $1.5 million to build a joint college-community auditorium.

Tim McNeill, CCCC trustee, said that the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure is relocating Forces Command and Reserve Command to Ft. Bragg. That will bring about 20,000 military and their family members to the 11-county area around Ft. Bragg by 2011. About 600 contractors serve FORSCOM and many of them could relocate or open facilities in the area.

McNeill, also a Harnett County commissioner and chairman of the BRAC Regional Task Force, said that 85 percent of the employees needed by these contractors won’t need university degrees – they will need high school diplomas and specialized training.

“Community colleges will be the workhorse for training the workforce for the growth of Ft. Bragg and the military industry in the local area ,” McNeill said, and they need the facilities to do so.

2007-08, saying the college was blessed to have legislators representing the three counties it serves who care about the college and work to stay informed about it.

“The information in this presentation will be very helpful when we go back to work on revenue budgets and appropriations,” Love said following the meeting.