"I appreciate the Governor offsetting cuts in the community college budget with additional revenues, but I am sincerely disappointed that resources were not found to fully fund community college enrollment growth. Our enrollment growth was double that of the University, but we received approximately one-half of the enrollment growth dollars that the University received.

"I applaud the Governor's stated goal of not affecting the classroom adversely. However, this budget will mean that thousands of unemployed workers seeking retraining may not find the classes they need to return to work with new skills. Hundreds of young people aspiring to a four-year degree will find their progress delayed, if they choose community college as the entry point to higher education. Scores of faculty and staff will be laid off.

"We urge the General Assembly to find the resources needed to fully fund our enrollment growth.

"The cuts in our existing budget in various aspects of our program will hurt, but the greatest negative impact will be in not being able to accommodate our record enrollment growth. The people charged with writing the state's budget must understand that this growth has already happened. North Carolina's community colleges are not funded based on estimates of next year's enrollments. Our money for next year is based on actual students taught this year. For the first time in the history of community colleges, we may not receive full reimbursement for instruction we have already delivered. This is a dramatic change in state policy with regard to how community colleges are funded for instruction. We thank the Governor for proposing flexibility in how we use our enrollment dollars and with that flexibility we will minimize classroom impact. However, even with our best efforts, there will be negative impacts in community college classrooms across the state.

"I am pleased that the Governor's budget recognizes the importance of higher education by fully funding enrollment growth in the University system. I urge the General Assembly to extend that same recognition to the 800,000 students of North Carolina's community colleges who seek job skills for the new economy. "

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