Report: NCSSM has unfair breaks

A local conservative higher-education watchdog has deemed that the tuition waivers for UNC-system schools given to graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Math are unfair.

The John Williams Pope Center for Higher Education Policy released a report Wednesday stating that North Carolina is wasting money on the grant program.

The N.C. General Assembly waived tuition costs for NCSSM graduates as a motivation for them to attend college in the state. The public residential high school, started in 1980, is affiliated with the UNC system.

“This is a carrot to keep those students in our university system,” said Sen. Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, who sponsored the bill.

The Pope Center says it is a carrot the state cannot afford.

“It’s not a justified expense when the state is looking at a billion-dollar deficit,” said Shannon Blosser, co-author of the Pope Center’s report.

The report also states that the program is discriminating against students who attend other high schools.

“It discriminates unfairly against other North Carolina high school students who may be at least as academically promising as graduates of NCSSM, if not more so,” the report states.

But Hagan said North Carolina’s economy, and its universities, will benefit if NCSSM students stay in the state.

The school, the first of its kind, has a curriculum that centers on science and math, and it requires a unique admissions process.

Craig Rowe, director of communications for NCSSM, said the bill was able to send a higher percentage of students to UNC-system schools and boost the high school’s enrollment.

Last year’s class was the first that had the chance to take advantage of the tuition waiver.

Eighty percent of the graduating class stayed in the UNC system, an increase from the previous average of 68 percent.

Enrollment in the school has risen, and Rowe attributed that fact to the tuition waiver as well.

“Because of the tuition grants we did see a spike in the number of applications,” he said.

“The entering class of 2006 had the highest average SAT score in the history of the school.”

Both Rowe and Hagan said the Pope Center’s report was not put together well.

“I think that it does a disservice to the exceptional work being done,” Hagan said.

“I don’t think it was a well- thought-out, well-studied paper. … This (program) is the first step. We need to replicate this benefit to other high schools around the state.”

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