By Dan Kane, Staff Writer- The News & Observer
A provision tucked in the North Carolina budget has taxpayers funding 20 scholarships at public and private historically black colleges.
Starting next year, the state will send taxpayer money in what appears to be an unprecedented direction -- to pay for 20 annual athletic scholarships at public and private colleges.
The $500,000 scholarship fund is the latest example of a special provision tucked into the budget just a few hours before lawmakers cast their final vote. It did not appear in a stand-alone bill, nor did it come up for debate in a legislative committee.
With the $20.7 billion budget's passage, two athletes at each of the state's 10 historically black colleges and universities will receive a $1,250-a-year scholarship, paid from the interest raised from the fund. It is named after the late John B. McLendon, a former coach at N.C. Central University who is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. .
Five of the 10 colleges are public, including NCCU in Durham, and five are private, including Shaw University and St. Augustine's College in Raleigh.
Each school will choose a male and female recipient, except for Bennett College in Greensboro, a private women's school, which will choose two women.
UNC leaders did not ask for the fund, said Andy Willis, the system's lobbyist. He said they had no idea it was coming, and might have had something to say about it, because it appears to be the first time the state has directly funded athletics scholarships. Athletics scholarships at public colleges are typically funded by private donations, often through booster organizations such as the Rams Club at UNC-Chapel Hill.
"Sometimes these things just magically appear," Willis said.
The magician, in this case, is state Sen. Charlie Dannelly, a Charlotte Democrat. He said he requested the money after legislative leaders told him he could not get funds to support the CIAA and MEAC basketball tournaments held in Charlotte and Raleigh, respectively.
Dannelly said the awards are not just athletics scholarships. Winners have to show "outstanding leadership" and meet "high academic standards," according to the provision.
"The idea is to get past the notion that athletes are strong and brawn and dumb," Dannelly said.
The fund's only definitive requirement is that the recipient be a varsity athlete. There's no grade point average to meet. Leadership qualities are not identified. Financial need is not a consideration.
The decision on who gets the scholarship would be made under the authority of the university's president or chancellor or by its board of trustees.
The fund is also another example of state lawmakers' moving away from criteria such as financial need or academic merit in providing scholarships.
The state has long provided tuition grants to residents who attend private colleges and universities in North Carolina regardless of need or merit. Four years ago, lawmakers created a similar grant program for students attending Bible colleges in the state.
Dannelly said the scholarships are appropriate, given that lawmakers two years ago allowed UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University athletes from out-of-state who receive booster-club scholarships to pay in-state tuition rates. That was a special provision in the 2005 budget.
"Those are worth thousands of dollars; with this we're talking $1,250," Dannelly said.
Ran Coble, executive director of the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, a nonpartisan group that examines state spending, said the McLendon fund is another example of misusing the state budget process by adding special provisions unrelated to the spending plan. He had previously criticized the in-state tuition break for athletics scholarships.
"This is another special provision that probably would not have passed if debated as a separate bill in the full light of day," Coble said.
Coble said the fund gives other private colleges more standing to ask for public money, while widening the door to sending more taxpayer money to athletics programs.
Legislative leaders have been inserting special provisions in state budgets for many years, in some cases by the dozens. Last year, the practice had to halt after the scandals surrounding former House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat.
Black had used them to insert legislation favorable to special interests that aided him. Three have since been overturned. Black has just begun a five-year sentence in federal prison on a public corruption charge.
This year there are several special provisions in the budget, including one that allows the Carolina Panthers to start selling alcoholic beverages an hour earlier before Sunday football games.
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