N.C. Spin Host Tom Campbell turned the tables on UNC President Emeritus William C. "Bill" Friday Tuesday night at the N.C. State University Alumni Center. Friday usually does the interviewing on "North Carolina People with Bill Friday," but Campbell got Friday to agree to a videotaped interview to be used in conjunction with NC Spin's upcoming 599th and 600th programs. Friday is comfortably in the lead, by the way, with about 1,500 programs under his belt. Friday talked about public issues and controversial points in his 30 years as president of the UNC system as well as his unofficial work as the conscience of North Carolina since then. And he showed why people listen to him with several thought-provoking comments.
One with huge currency right now, given the headlines in this morning's Observer about CMS beginning to lay off 600 teachers, was his observation about how North Carolina's priorities are sometimes misplaced.
Noting that Gov. Bev Perdue had recently informed the state's teachers that there would be no money available in the upcoming year for salary raises, he said that as of yesterday, the taxpayers of North Carolina have spent a total of $25 million to subsidize the tuition costs of out-of-state athletes at UNC system campuses. The legislature decided in 2005 to allow athletic scholarships (and some academic scholarships as well) for out-of-state students to pay in-state tuition costs rather than the much higher out-of-state tuition costs. It saves athletics departments at UNC campuses a bundle – and costs taxpayers that same bundle.
There's something wrong with the policy of the state of North Carolina when it values out-of-state athletes so highly but the state's public school teachers so poorly, and everyone knows it. Point to Bill Friday.
