In order to provide incentives for employees to remain in state jobs, an Orange County representative proposed a plan Monday that she hopes will reduce North Carolina’s high employee turnover.
Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, introduced a bill that would give state teachers and employees the opportunity to earn course credit at state universities and community colleges.
The bill proposes to create an “education bank” for teachers and state employees in which they would receive course credit hours based on their length of employment by the state.
The program would benefit state faculty and employees and their immediate families.
With annual state employee turnover at about 15 percent, legislative incentives for teachers and other workers to keep their positions might be a step in the right direction, but campus officials think they could prove problematic.
Given the state’s budget concerns and limited class enrollment, Insko said, the benefits could be extended only to university employees.
“I think that people have to look very carefully any time they waive tuition,” she said.
Qualified teachers and employees would still have to apply to the state university of their choice, Insko said. If they were accepted, the education bank would work like a scholarship program, annually allotting four additional credit hours to each participant in the program.
“It’s a fairly modest proposal,” she said.
