A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to provide State Contractual Scholarship Fund Grants and Legislative Tuition grants for students who have bachelors degrees but are pursuing licensure as nurses or teachers.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 116‑19 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑19.  Contracts with private institutions to aid North Carolina students and licensure students; reporting requirement.
(a)	In order to encourage and assist private institutions to continue to educate North Carolina students and licensure students, the State Education Assistance Authority may enter into contracts with the institutions under the terms of which an institution receiving any funds that may be appropriated pursuant to this section would agree that, during any fiscal year in which such funds were received, the institution would provide and administer scholarship funds for needy North Carolina students and licensure students in an amount at least equal to the amount paid to the institution, pursuant to this section, during the fiscal year. Under the terms of the contracts the State Education Assistance Authority would agree to pay to the institutions, subject to the availability of funds, a fixed sum of money for each North Carolina student and licensure student enrolled at the institutions for the regular academic year, said sum to be determined by appropriations that might be made from time to time by the General Assembly pursuant to this section. Funds appropriated pursuant to this section shall be paid by the State Education Assistance Authority to an institution on certification of the institution showing the number of North Carolina students and licensure students enrolled at the institution as of October 1 of any year for which funds may be appropriated. For purposes of this subsection, "needy North Carolina students and licensure students" are those eligible students and licensure students who have financial need as determined by the institution under the institutional methodology or the federal methodology as defined by the State Education Assistance Authority. For purposes of this subsection, "institutional methodology" means a need‑analysis formula, developed by College Scholarship Service, that determines the student's or licensure student's and his or her family's capacity to pay for postsecondary education each year.
(b)	The State Education Assistance Authority shall document the number of full‑time equivalent North Carolina undergraduate students and full‑time and less than full‑time licensure students that are enrolled in off‑campus programs and the State funds collected by each institution pursuant to G.S. 116‑19 for those students. The State Education Assistance Authority shall also document the number of scholarships and the amount of the scholarships that are awarded under G.S. 116‑19 to students and licensure students enrolled in off‑campus programs. An "off‑campus program" is any program offered for degree credit away from the institution's main permanent campus.
The State Education Assistance Authority shall include in its annual report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee the information it has compiled and its findings regarding this program."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 116‑20 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑20.  Scholarship and contract terms; base period.
In order to encourage and assist private institutions to educate additional numbers of North Carolinians, the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina is hereby authorized to enter into contracts within the institutions under the terms of which an institution receiving any funds that may be appropriated pursuant to this section would agree that, during any fiscal year in which such funds were received, the institution would provide and administer scholarship funds for needy North Carolina students and licensure students in an amount at least equal to the amount paid to the institution, pursuant to this section, during the fiscal year. Under the terms of the contracts the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina would agree to pay to the institutions, subject to the availability of funds, a fixed sum of money for each North Carolina student and licensure student enrolled as of October 1 of any year for which appropriated funds may be available, over and above the number of North Carolina students enrolled in that institution as of October 1, 1997, which shall be the base date for the purpose of this calculation. Funds appropriated pursuant to this section shall be paid by the State Education Assistance Authority to an institution upon recommendation of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina and on certification of the institution showing the number of North Carolina students and licensure students enrolled at the institution as of October 1 of any year for which funds may be appropriated over the number enrolled on the base date. In the event funds are appropriated for expenditure pursuant to this section and funds are also appropriated, for the same fiscal year, for expenditure pursuant to G.S. 116‑19, students and licensure students who are enrolled at an institution in excess of the number enrolled on the base date may be counted under this section for the purpose of calculating the amount to be paid to the institution, but the same students and licensure students may also be counted under G.S. 116‑19, for the purpose of calculating payment to be made under that section."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 116‑21.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑21.1.  Financial aid for North Carolina students and licensure students attending private institutions of higher education in North Carolina.
(a)	Funds shall be appropriated each fiscal year in the Current Operations Appropriations Act to the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina for aid to institutions and shall be disbursed in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 116‑19, 116‑21, and 116‑22.
(b)	The funds appropriated in compliance with this section shall be placed in a separate, identifiable account in each eligible institution's budget or chart of accounts. All funds in the account shall be provided as scholarship funds for needy North Carolina students and licensure students during the fiscal year. Each student and licensure student awarded a scholarship from this account shall be notified of the source of the funds and of the amount of the award. Funds not utilized under G.S. 116‑19 shall be available for the tuition grant program as defined in G.S. 116‑21.2."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 116‑21.2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑21.2.  Legislative tuition grants to aid students and licensure students attending private institutions of higher education.
(a)	In addition to any funds appropriated pursuant to G.S. 116‑19 and in addition to all other financial assistance made available to institutions, or to persons attending these institutions, there is granted to each full‑time North Carolina undergraduate student attending an approved institution as defined in G.S. 116‑22, a sum, to be determined by the General Assembly for each academic year which shall be distributed to the full‑time undergraduate student as provided by this subsection.
(a1)	The legislative tuition grant provided by this section shall also be granted to each full‑time licensure student who is enrolled in a program intended to result in a license in teaching or nursing at an approved institution. The legislative tuition grant provided by this section shall be awarded on a pro rata basis to any licensure student who is enrolled less than full‑time in a program intended to result in a license in teaching or nursing at an approved institution. The legislative tuition grant and prorated legislative tuition grant authorized under this subsection shall be paid for undergraduate courses only.(b)	The tuition grants provided for in this section shall be administered by the State Education Assistance Authority pursuant to rules adopted by the State Education Assistance Authority not inconsistent with this section. The State Education Assistance Authority shall not approve any grant until it receives proper certification from an approved institution that the student or licensure student applying for the grant is eligible. Upon receipt of the certification, the State Education Assistance Authority shall remit at the times as it prescribes the grant to the approved institution on behalf, and to the credit, of the student or licensure student.
(c)	Except as provided in subsection (a1) of this section, in the event a student on whose behalf a grant has been paid is not enrolled and carrying a minimum academic load as of the tenth classroom day following the beginning of the school term for which the grant was paid, the institution shall refund the full amount of the grant to the State Education Assistance Authority. If a licensure student on whose behalf a prorated grant has been paid in accordance with subsection (a1) of this section is not enrolled in the undergraduate class as of the tenth classroom day following the beginning of the school term for which the grant was paid, the institution shall refund the full amount of the grant to the State Education Assistance Authority. Each approved institution shall be subject to examination by the State Auditor for the purpose of determining whether the institution has properly certified eligibility and enrollment of students and licensure students and credited grants paid on behalf of them.
(d)	In the event there are not sufficient funds to provide each eligible student or licensure student with a full grant as provided by subsection (a) of this section or a full or a prorated grant as provided by subsection (a1) of this section:
(1)	The Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina, with the approval of the Office of State Budget and Management, may transfer available funds to meet the needs of the programs provided by subsections (a), (a1), and (b) of this section; and
(2)	Each eligible student and licensure student shall receive a pro rata share of funds then available for the remainder of the academic year within the fiscal period covered by the current appropriation.
(e)	Any remaining funds shall revert to the General Fund."
SECTION 5.  G.S. 116‑21.3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 116‑21.3.  Legislative tuition grant limitations.
(a)	For purposes of this section, an "off‑campus program" is any program offered for degree credit away from the institution's main permanent campus.
(b)	No legislative tuition grant funds shall be expended for a program at an off‑campus site of a private institution, as defined in G.S. 116‑22(1), established after May 15, 1987, unless (i) the private institution offering the program has previously notified and secured agreement from other private institutions operating degree programs in the county in which the off‑campus program is located or operating in the counties adjacent to that county or (ii) the degree program is neither available nor planned in the county with the off‑campus site or in the counties adjacent to that county.
(c)	Any member of the armed services, as defined in G.S. 116‑143.3(a), abiding in this State incident to active military duty, who does not qualify as a resident for tuition purposes, as defined under G.S. 116‑143.1, is eligible for a legislative tuition grant pursuant to this section if the member is enrolled as a full‑time undergraduate student or as a licensure student. The member's legislative tuition grant shall not exceed the cost of tuition less any tuition assistance paid by the member's employer.
(d)	A legislative tuition grant authorized under G.S. 116‑21.2(a) shall be reduced by twenty‑five percent (25%) for any individual student who has completed 140 semester credit hours or the equivalent of 140 semester credit hours."
SECTION 6.  G.S. 116‑21.4(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Expenditures made pursuant to G.S. 116‑19, 116‑20, 116‑21.1, or 116‑21.2 shall not be used for any student or licensure student who:
(1)	Is incarcerated in a State or federal correctional facility for committing a Class A, B, B1, or B2 felony; or
(2)	Is incarcerated in a State or federal correctional facility for committing a Class C through I felony and is not eligible for parole or release within 10 years."
SECTION 7.  G.S. 116‑22 is amended by adding a new subdivision to read:
"(1b)	'Licensure student' shall mean a person who:
a.	Has a bachelors degree;
b.	Is enrolled either full‑time or less than full‑time in a program intended to result in licensure in teaching or nursing;
c.	Attends an institution located in the State; and
d.	Qualifies as a resident of North Carolina in accordance with definitions of residency that may from time to time be adopted by the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina and published in the residency manual of the Board."
SECTION 8.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the State Education Assistance Authority the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) for the 2006‑2007 fiscal year to implement this act.
SECTION 9.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2006.