6
MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2005
Council to fight against
cuts in federal funding
BY MEGHAN DAVIS
STAFF WRITER
Local officials are fighting to
prevent cuts in federal funding for
community development.
The Chapel Hill Town Council
will vote tonight on a resolution
asking local congressmen to lobby
for a community development
program whose future has been
muddied by a section of President
Bush’s proposed 2006-07 budget.
As drafted, the “Strengthening
America’s Communities” program
will consolidate grants from 18
community development pro
grams into a unified source man
aged by the U.S. Department of
Commerce.
“These are poverty alleviation
dollars,” said David Sampson,
assistant secretary of commerce
for economic development.
“The funds should be targeted
to communities most in need to
attract new business develop
ment and to create new and bet
ter jobs.”
But town officials are worried
about how the new program will
affect a vital source of funding for
affordable housing: the community
development block grant.
The grants, now run by the U.S.
Syria could be starting withdrawal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIRUT, Lebanon Lebanese
officials said Syrian troops will
start moving toward eastern
Lebanon on Monday in a pullback
that will take two or three days,
while Syrians backed President
Bashar Assad’s decision and insist
ed Sunday he was not bowing to
international pressure.
The withdrawal from central
and northern Lebanon toward the
Bekaa Valley will begin right after
a meeting in Damascus, Syria,
between the presidents of the two
countries, said Lebanese Defense
Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad.
Assad and Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud will decide on the
timetable of the pullback.
“The Syrian withdrawal will
begin Monday directly after the
meeting in Damascus of the Syrian
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Department of Housing and Urban
Development, will allocate $4.62
billion this fiscal year.
Under the president’s budget,
all programs under Strengthening
America’s Communities will have a
budget of only $3.7 billion in 2005-
06.
Cuts to the community block
grants could present problems to
town officials as they vote today
to approve the proposed 2005-06
operating budget for public hous
ing.
“We think it would have a sig
nificant and harmful effect on our
community,” said Town Manager
Cal Horton. “We have used those
funds to help maintain public
housing and support affordable
housing in the community.”
The town received $711,000
from community block grants in
fiscal year 2004. Officials expect
that the town will receive $666,392
next fiscal year.
Chapel Hill will likely be hit
hard by the changes, said Bridget
Loweli, press secretary for Rep.
David Price, D-N.C.
And the town’s concerns are not
falling on deaf ears.
Price plans to join what Lowell
characterized as a bipartisan fight
and Lebanese leaderships,” Murad
said.
Assad told his parliament
Saturday that the redeployment of
14,000 Syrian troops to the Bekaa
Valley is the first phase of a two
step pullback, but he left unclear
whether troops eventually would
leave Lebanon or remain near the
border. He also said nothing about
pulling out intelligence officials,
who the United States said also
must leave.
Syrian secret services and intel
ligence officials “that really keep
the clamp of fear in the Lebanese
people” must withdraw, White
House counselor Dan Bartlett told
CNN’s “Late Edition.”
President Bush said Friday that
anything less than a full Syrian with
drawal by May when Lebanese
parliamentary elections are to be
to protect community block grants.
The N.C. League of Municipalities
and the American Planning
Association also plan to oppose
Bush’s entire budget.
But while urban communities
such as Chapel Hill might feel the
pinch from the funding changes,
Sampson said, the new program
is designed to provide rural areas
of the state with more targeted
relief.
“Many of these (current) funds
are going to communities that are
doing quite well economically,”
Sampson said, adding that the
administration hopes the new pro
gram will change that by helping to
create jobs in areas with continu
ing unemployment.
“Although the national econo
my is doing very well, the reality
is that economic growth and vital
ity is not felt equally throughout
nation,” he said.
“Certainly there are parts of
North Carolina textile mills,
furniture factories, parts of rural
North Carolina where robust
economic indicators would seem
very out of place.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
held would be an unacceptable
“half-measure.” U.S. officials reiter
ated that demand Sunday.
“We’ll continue to make clear
that they understand that the
international community is not
going to stand by and let Assad
continue to have these type of
half-measures, but to live up to his
international demands,” Bartlett
told “Fox News Sunday.”
The 1989 Arab-brokered Taif
Accord called for Syria to move its
troops to the Lebanese border and
for both countries to then negoti
ate the withdrawal.
A U.N. resolution, drafted by
the United States and France in
September, called on Syria to with
draw its forces from Lebanon, stop
influencing politics in the country
and allow Lebanon to hold presi
dential elections as scheduled.
News
Proposal wins praise, scorn
BY KRISTIN PRATT
STAFF WRITER
Gov. Mike Easley’s 2005 budget
calls for pay hikes for faculty at
community colleges and for UNC
system workers —but not every
one is pleased with the proposed
increases.
The budget proposes a 4 percent
hike for community college faculty
and staff in an effort to bring those
salaries up to the national average.
But Easley’s suggestion of a 2 per
cent salary increase for UNC-system
faculty is problematic, officials say,
because it does not do enough to
make salaries competitive.
And the State Employees
Association of North Carolina says
the proposed 2 percent increase
for state workers is not enough to
cover even the rising cost of living.
One of Easley’s priorities is to
bring the salaries of community
college faculty up to the national
average.
“It’s time for parity,” said Audrey
Bailey, assistant to the president
for public information for the N.C.
Community College System.
The proposal comes in the sec
ond year of a five-year program to
increase the salaries of community
college faculty, Bailey said.
“The focus used to be on bring
ing public school salaries up to par,”
she said. “Now they’re turning to
the next problem child.”
Bailey said the community col
lege system has lost faculty mem
bers to the private sector and to the
public school system because their
pay was not adequate.
Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC-
Chapel Hill’s Program on Southern
Graduation to come at higher price
BY AMY EAGLEBURGER
STAFF WRITER
High school students soon will
have to fulfill even more require
ments before graduation when
the N.C. State Board of Education
implements new changes.
Not only will students have to
score well on four of five subject
tests, but they also will have to com
plete a community service project.
Howard Lee, chairman of the
board, said the changes stem from
a need to ensure that every student
is qualified to graduate.
“We certainly need to certify that
a person is able to perform compa
rable to the certificate that they are
being awarded,” he said.
“The only way we know how to do
that is from the results of the test and
the results from the senior project.”
Another new requirement, the
service-related project, will be geared
toward help students become more
involved in their communities.
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Politics, Media and Public Life,
said that community college faculty
members are chronically under
paid, and that Easley is now taking
steps to improve the system.
Improving the community col
lege system is key because it sup
ports a huge number of students, he
said. “There’s a large influx because
people are getting retrained and
retooled for new economy jobs.”
Easley’s proposal gives system
faculty a 2 percent increase, but Jeff
Davies, the system’s vice president for
finance, said the Board of Governors
requested a 7.5 percent increase.
The board wanted a large
increase not only to help cover the
cost of living but also to make sala
ries more competitive, Davies said.
“The BOG wants to provide
faculty and all employees with an
adequate salary so they are not com
pelled to go to outside universities.”
System faculty members appreci
ate die board’s position, Davies said.
But they understand the limits legis
lators face in creating a budget.
The 7-5 percent hike only would
have been for system faculty. UNC
officials also have made statements
in support of higher salaries for
state employees.
Sherry Melton, spokeswoman
for SEANC, said state employees
including UNC-system workers
who aren’t faculty members are
not upset that community college
faculty are getting a higher increase.
But they are upset that they are only
receiving a 2 percent hike.
SEANC requested a salary
increase of 5 percent, she said.
“We were expecting less than
what we wanted because Governor
The project will count for 30
percent of a student’s exit score,
with tests comprising the other 70
percent. These changes have been
in the works for two years, and the
first class to be affected by this will
be students currently enrolled in
seventh grade, Lee said.
Administering a test to determine
graduation eligibility is increasingly
popular across the United States.
California is one such state that uses
a statewide exit exam.
“The purpose for our exit exam
is to ensure that all students who
graduate from high school and
receive a diploma have a grader
level competency in reading, writ
ing and mathematics,” said Lily
Roberts, manager of the high school
exit exam office at the California
Department of Education.
The N.C. exam score would be
students’ aggregate performance
on the end-of-course tests they
already have to take.
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Easley told us we would not get 5
percent,” she said. “We were hoping
for more than 2 percent.”
Melton said state employees have
not gotten a pay raise in more than
two years especially important
because the 2 percent increase will
not cover the rising cost of living.
A major component of the rise
is the increased cost of health care.
There is a $355 million deficit for
health care in the state, Melton
said. She added that in order to
make up for that deficit, companies
are driving up premiums. “We need
a larger pay raise, and we have got
to have a better health plan.”
Melton said there still is hope for
a larger salary increase from the leg
islature. She said Senate President
Pro Tern Marc Basnight, D-Dare,
and House Speaker Jim Black, D-
Mecklenburg, both have publicly
said that the government had to do
more for state employees.
Davies said that the governor’s
budget is just a starting point for
forming salary increases and that
changes in proposed increases still
might occur.
And any salary increase could
depend on what the N.C. General
Assembly does with a cigarette tax
proposal and the renewal of a half
cent sales tax hike, Guillory said.
If the tax measures are enacted
and the state economy grows this
year, Guillory said, salaries for state
employees, community college and
university faculty could increase.
“It will be uncertain until the
last minute.”
Contact the State C 5 National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Officials believe this system will
make the stakes for final exams
decidedly higher.
Lee said this is all part of dialing
up the state’s standards to ensure
that N.C. students are getting the
best education possible.
But some point out that heavier
reliance on test scores might make
graduation even harder for some.
“I think it may contribute to
greater dropouts,” said Betsy Feifs,
executive director for student ser
vices for Durham Public Schools.
“The tests will be a bigger chal
lenge to some kids.”
Concern about placing too much
weight on a single test led officials to
include the senior project.
“If a student does not do well on
tests, the student may do extremely
well on a senior project,” Lee said.
Feifs said that the more rigor
ous road to graduation will make
students take an increased level of
pride in their accomplishments.
“They’re setting a standard,” she
said of the Board of Education’s
new requirements. “The diploma
has more value than ever before.”
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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