GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 270

Short Title:  GPAC/Comm. Coll. Cost of Education Policy.     	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Martin of Guilford.
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Referred to:  Government Performance Audit.
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February 19, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE REGARDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE POLICY ON THE COST OF EDUCATION AND ON THE TUITION TO BE CHARGED.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  The General Assembly finds that the tuition policy of the North Carolina Community College System needs to be reexamined in order to reflect better the constitutional mandate to provide higher education free of expense "as far as practicable" by reevaluating the relationship of tuition to the cost of education and by determining what costs must be made up of tuition charged in order to ensure that all eligible North Carolinians are indeed guaranteed a public higher education in the North Carolina Community College System at the lowest possible cost while maintaining a public community college system that is worthy of the support of all North Carolinians.
Sec. 2.  (a)	The General Assembly finds that tuition and required fees charged for community colleges should be a limited amount of the per capita student funding for resident students.
(b)	The State Board of Community Colleges shall develop a tuition/fee policy consistent with law that limits tuition and required fees to a specific percentage of less than one-fifth of the per capita student funding for resident students of attending community colleges.
(c)	The State Board of Community Colleges shall present its plan for implementing the tuition increases pursuant to this section to the General Assembly by April 1, 1994.
Sec. 3.  G.S. 115D-5(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	The State Board of Community Colleges may adopt and execute such policies, regulations and standards concerning the establishment, administration, and operation of institutions as the State Board may deem necessary to insure the quality of educational programs, to promote the systematic meeting of educational needs of the State, and to provide for the equitable distribution of State and federal funds to the several institutions.
The State Board of Community Colleges shall establish standards and scales for salaries and allotments paid from funds administered by the State Board, and all employees of the institutions shall be exempt from the provisions of the State Personnel Act. The State Board shall have authority with respect to individual institutions: to approve sites, buildings, building plans, budgets; to approve the selection of the chief administrative officer; to establish and administer standards for professional personnel, curricula, admissions, and graduation; to regulate the awarding of degrees, diplomas, and certificates; to establish and regulate student tuition and fees within policies for tuition and fees established by the General Assembly; and to establish and regulate financial accounting procedures."
Sec. 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.