From the home office in Chapel Hill, the top 15 pork barrel higher education projects

At some point today, legislators will give final approval to the budget compromise that was hatched out before the Fourth of July weekend. It marks the end of the budget process that began in May and extended just days past the start of the 2007 fiscal year.

Like any governmental budget, this one has enough pork to make a pig farmer smile. This year’s higher education budget contains many generous helpings.

In honor of the passage of the state budget, the Pope Center unveils its list of the top 15 pork barrel projects. We determined projects for the list based on two questions. Is the project really needed? Should it be privately funded? While some of the projects in the list seem worthwhile, it would be better if they were funded through voluntary contributions.

So without further adoo and in true David Letterman style, from the home office on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, here is this year’s “Top 15 Higher Education Pork Barrel Projects.”

15. ECSU Pharmacy Space ($43,000 non-recurring) – We’re talking $43,000 to pay for six temporary modular units. Couldn’t we pass the plate around pharmacists in the state to collect the money for this program?

14. Perinatal Care Network ($75,000 non-recurring) – This appears to be a worthy program that aims to reduce infant mortality rates by providing professionals with more information. There are many professional information sources. If UNC is the best or only source, it should be possible to raise the money privately.

13. Graduate Nurse Scholarship Program for Faculty Production ($1.2 million recurring) – This program would provide $15,000 for two years for master’s candidates in nursing education and up to three for doctorates. The catch the recipient must teach in North Carolina for each year they receive a scholarship or repay the loan. Do we really need to subsidize people to enter the field of nursing education?

12. North Carolina Information Highway Expansion ($120,000 non-recurring) – Our first glimpse into the community college budget. This would provide $15,000 to eight colleges for mobile videoconferencing equipment. This might be nice on occasion, but it’s not something the schools can’t get along without.

11. TEACCH ($348.349 recurring) – According to the line item, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Psychology would receive the money for, among other things, salaries, additional fringe benefits, rents and operations. If the department wants more money for salaries, benefits, and operations it should be possible to raise the funds privately – providing that the expenditures are sufficiently important.

10. North Carolina Engineering Technology Center ($300,000 non-recurring) – This money would help to establish the North Carolina Engineering Technology Center and the use of two buildings in Hickory for “development of engineering technology programs.” We already have one school, NC State, that does a superb job in educating engineers. Putting this new engineering program out in Hickory looks very political.

9. NCSU Center for Universal Design ($300,000 non-recurring) – Quoting the line-item description: “Provides funding to this Center that designs products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” Exactly what does that mean? Can’t we leave designing products and environments to the private sector?

8. NC School of the Arts Library ($1 million non-recurring) – This request came in under the capital projects budget. It provides capital funding for a proposed $24 million library on campus. Again, let’s think outside of the box. School of the Arts. Hollywood alums. I think another pass of the hat would work here. And how much use does the current library get?

7. Regional Customized Training Directors ($148,470 recurring, $5,000 non-recurring) – The community college system, under workforce development, would receive funding for two regional customized training directors to take the total of directors to seven, one for each development region. Workforce development should be left for private companies. If it’s needed, let them pay for it.

6. North Carolina in the World Project ($200,000 non-recurring) – This program is to improve knowledge about the world among K-12 students. Why is it in the higher education budget? If it appears that it would work, finding private funding shouldn’t be hard, since many foundations want to improve K-12 education these days.

5. Hunt Institute ($500,000 non-recurring) – This provides operating support for the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy in Chapel Hill. Yes, legislators love our former governor, but if another education think tank is needed, let private parties fund it.

4. Family House at UNC Hospitals ($1 million non-recurring) – This is a great project, providing a place to stay for family members of critically ill patients at UNC Hospital. The hospital has raised $4.3 million of the needed $6.3 million. As worthy as the project is, private donations could raise the remaining two million. This isn’t really a governmental function.

3. UNC-Chapel Hill DESTINY Traveling Science Lab ($500,000 recurring) – Here the state is dipping into its coffers to offset lost grant funding for this program that attempts to enhance science education. I guess they’re too busy driving the bus to look for additional grant money and chose the easy way out – squeeze the taxpayers.

2. Dental Schools Planning ($7 million non-recurring) – This provides capital planning funds for expanding UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Dentistry and the establishment of a School of Dentistry at East Carolina. As we’ve mentioned before, building a dental school at ECU does not make sense and is a waste of taxpayer funding.

1. Study the Feasibility Off Adding North Carolina Wesleyan to the UNC System ($50,000 of UNC funds) – And this year’s “Porker of the Year” goes to a request to study if North Carolina Wesleyan should go from a private college to a public university. This is an election-year pet project for legislators in the Rocky Mount area. The college is doing fine as a private college. It should remain so.