The Daily Tar Heel
URL: http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/04/governors_school_could_lose_state_funding
Current Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 06:16:13 -0400
Governor’s School could lose state funding
Students may have to pay full tuition
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A potential $2,000 tuition for Governor’s School could make the program less of a meritocracy and leave districts deciding whether to take on the extra cost.
If the N.C. General Assembly’s proposed budget cuts are enacted, the program will lose all of its state funding, leaving students or local districts with the full cost of attendance.
The cost of Governor’s School increased to $500 last year, and students already accepted into the N.C. Governor’s School will likely not have to pay an increased tuition this summer, Mary Watson, director of the program, said.
In the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, 21 students were selected to attend the six-week program this year.
The district requires parents to pay a tuition, unless they are unable, in which case financial assistance is available, said Jean Parrish, coordinator for district’s instructional services division.
The district did not have to pay any student’s tuition in 2010, Parrish said, though she declined to comment on how many students are seeking aid this year.
“We’re facing the same cuts as everyone else,” she said
“We can’t say that we can pay them all, but if the student has a financial need we can pay that for them.”She said no students in the district have been deterred from the school because they couldn’t pay.
The Orange County Schools district had five students accepted into the program, said Patricia Coleman, administrative associate to the superintendant.
The county district paid the full tuition for all five, she said.
Sarah Ringel, the parent of an Orange County Schools student accepted to Governor’s School, said she questioned the priorities of the state in defunding the program.
“The whole concept of Governor’s School is one of the few things that’s just purely based on merit and not money,” she said. “We’re turning a sad corner. It’s not surprising, but it’s still sad.”
Governor’s School is a six-week residential summer program for high-achieving high school students that provides academic and fine arts classes at Salem College in Winston-Salem and Meredith College in Raleigh.
Without funding, the program would have to operate like a private program, accepting full tuition for each student, Watson said.
If that happens —which Watson said is likely — it won’t only be students who are worse off, she said.
“When you don’t educate and provide for your brightest students, you’re hurting the economy of the state,” Watson said.
Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.
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10 comments
Instead of being 50% kids from Enloe, Broughton and Myers Park, it will now me 100%. Thanks, Repubs.
Could there be anything worse than a tuition increase for Governor’s School? Really? Governor’s School is an excuse for high school kids to leave home for a few weeks and go party with college kids over the summer. And get this, then colleges look at it as an accomplishment on applications. Oh brother.
Oh yeah and thanks Repubs for not figuring about a better system for us than the world’s economy. How about thanks Fiat money system. Maybe if every dollar in the world was backed by gold we wouldn’t have this problem. Oh yes, then we wouldn’t even have to worry about Governor’s school, or cars, or the internet, or socialist programs, or innovation at all.
Or better yet maybe if everyone wanted to work for a living then the government could collect enough tax dollars to support programs as ridiculous as Governor’s School.
As someone whose trajectory in life was completely altered by the program, I find it saddening that such a great program might become dependent on families’ financial status. As with any worthwhile endeavor, there are costs, sure but this is just shockingly shortsighted. And it just pushes the funding problem down to the local level. Talk about responsible governance.
Governor’s School was absolutely fantastic. At GS, I discovered my career path and a whole host of teachers and fellow students who helped me learn to love learning. (Oh, and I didn’t party with college students, and neither did my friends.)
The type of first-class education that I received at Governor’s School should not be limited to those with money.
GS is a fine program but not one that rises to the level of “we just can’t do without it”. I agree with seriously…if everyone would work and pay taxes, we would have money for programs like this, but since only about 50% of us actually work, it is not possible to do. I work my tail off and am blessed with a salary that is easily in the top 1% of all earners, but damn…I can only keep up so many people!!!
I am offended by your obviously misinformed comment, “Seriously.” I attended Governor’s School this past summer and the program positively and dramatically impacted the lives of every student who had the honor of that opportunity. The program rewards intelligent and high-achieving high school students with a refreshing summer of learning and growing in ways including and surpassing academics. The program teaches open-mindedness, challenging dogmatic viewpoints and expanding perspectives. Please do not insult this magnificent program by calling it an excuse to party, since in fact the kids who wanted to party all summer stayed home and the ones who wanted to learn and grow chose to attend Governor’s School (where alcohol is strictly prohibited under threat of expulsion).
Well Caroline, as much as I respect your opinion I also attended Governor’s School when I was in high school, and it was exactly how I described.
It’s all fine and dandy that you want to believe that it positively impacted the lives of EVERYONE who had the opportunity to attend. In reality unless the face of American youth has dramatically changed in the bast few year, I would bet that you were in the minority.
I am not saying that Governor’s School should be outlawed, but is it something you couldn’t live without? If it still is, give it a few years and once you have graduated from college and you look back on how trivial high school was you will likely understand my point of view.
To be honest, the only reason I went to Governor’s School was because my friends two years ahead of me went and told me how much they partied. If the experience changed your life, more power to ya. But it is a far cry from something essential to the development of our “Best and Brightest.”
Maybe what they should have is a summer program that rewards underachievers for their efforts. If you take them and give them a taste of what college life will be like, I am sure they will improve their grades in a heart beat. The underachievers are who we need to be developing, not the ones who are already motivated.
Seriously, seriously? You attended Governor’s School and got nothing out of it? I suppose it’s possible. but having met hundreds of alumni, I can say that you experience is not typical. You seem to have some very strong opinions about GS and its value, and about other things as well. Can you accept that a program that has been valueable in the lives of thousands of others may have merit, even if it didn’t appeal to YOU?
If you want to see what the typical GS student thinks of the program, try looking here:
http://www.ncgsalumni.org/memories.html
I agree with you, seriously.
I attended GS and received little, if any, academic benefit from it. However, I did learn the social and networking skills of upper-middle and upper class kids, which was valuable to me as a foreigner and a stranger to many.
The kids we should be investing in are those that are doing poorly, not those that are already doing well.
Still, I am faced with the dilemma of deciding if some sort of program is better than no program at all.
“Seriously,” as someone who attended Governor’s School this past summer at Meredith College (East Campus) with Caroline, I completely disagree with your comment, “I would bet that you were in the minority,” when referring to the impact it had on her life. I believe that the majority of our 2010 GSE class was positively impacted by this program.
I will give you some credit for saying later that the underachieveing studenst do need more help in our school systems (NC public schools,) but they do not need to be rewarded. Governor’s School was a reward. I worked incredibly hard my first three years of high school, and at GSE I was able to experience a culture where learning was more important that grades. This culture was more about learning outside the classroom, more about learning from the instructors (very different than your average high school ‘teacher’,) and more about learning from the incredible individuals I was around.
If you went to Governor’s School and got nothing out of it, if high school was so “trivial” to you, I wonder what you have learned in life?
I believe life is about experiences. We learn from others, from history, and from our past (mistakes quite frankly.)
I never once “partied” at GSE. Nor did I really interact with any Meredith students. I did hang out with 300 of the best people I’ve ever met. I did gain some incredible experiences from living with a black male (I am white) who was born in another region of NC. And I did learn a great deal from my social science and philosophy classes.
Above all, it WAS essential in my development into who I am one year later. Governor’s School was my ‘final touch’ as I prepared to finish high school and enter college.
As a GS alumnus I apologize to you and other alumni (like the one who also commented negatively) for your poor experience in the program. While neither of you may understand, our state stands to lose one of its few thriving programs, one nationally renown no-less.
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