Hendersonville Times-News: Tuition subsidy worth cost

Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

In a budget year as challenging as this one, it is no surprise that lawmakers are looking everywhere for cuts.  One example is the tuition discount that state universities give to athletes and scholars from out of state....

The discounts should stay.  The lower tuition for out-of-state students that swimming coaches, wrestling coaches or physics departments recruit to our universities is a good policy. For a relatively small amount of money, the state is attracting top students (and athletes).... The subsidy helps the state’s universities recruit a diverse population from around the country and boosts the ability of smaller campuses to compete in athletics.  Most important of all, though, the discount means that money from private foundations goes further.  Click here to read more.

The practice, to cite one example, directly benefits the most valuable scholarship at the state’s flagship university.

“It reduces our per-scholar costs, allowing us to distribute our grants over a greater number of students,” said Chuck Lovelace, executive director of the Morehead-Cain Scholars Program, which provided full scholarships to 60 incoming freshmen this year at UNC. Without the tuition discount, the number would have been 42. “If the provision is lost, we would have to reduce our scholarships.”

In debate, a lot of the focus is on whether UNC should give the Tyler Hansbroughs of the world a tuition break when the Tar Heels have a rich strong booster club that could pay his out-of-state rate.  That ignores the benefit to smaller schools, to athletes in non-revenue sports and to women....

Letting qualified students attend college at in-state rates leverages one of our state’s most important assets by attracting students we want and stretching private dollars. It’s a good thing for the students, the campuses and the state as a whole, and even in tight economic times it ought to be maintained.