In this week’s newsletter I will be discussing the North Carolina Early College Initiative and its effect on our local counties.
I will also be updating how North Carolina’s High Risk Insurance Pool is helping some families in this state cope with restricted access to insurance. Additionally, I want to inform you about our District Forum, which is rapidly approaching.
NC EARLY COLLEGE INITIATIVE
Investing in our children’s education is the best way for our state to ensure that North Carolina’s future is a bright one. Our students need to be prepared for life after high school, whether that involves going to college or beginning a career. The North Carolina Early College Initiative, in partnership with the New Schools Project, is an effort which provides our students with an incredible opportunity and resource preparing them for those challenges. For information on the national Early College Initiative, please visit here.
These high school programs are often called “Learn and Earn” High Schools, and are part of the Cooperative Innovative High Schools Program run by the State Board of Education. For more information on the state level, please visit here. The New Schools Project, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provides additional funding for some of the needs of the high schools. An example of the type of funding provided by the New Schools Project could include start-up funding, or funding for more advanced teacher training. But the majority of the everyday funding for these schools comes from the state, and is administered through the local education authorities.
The Early College Program in North Carolina is one in which a local school system will partner with a local community college or university. Through this partnership an Early College High School will be created. Students who enroll in the Early College High School will take both high school level courses and college level courses. The students will either receive two years worth of credit towards a college degree or a 2 year technical associate’s degree. The two years of college credit will give the students a decided advantage with regards to their pursuit of a 4 year college degree. And for the students who do not continue on to college, the associate’s degree will allow for an easier access into the job market.
Both Warren and Vance Counties have Early College High Schools which have been in operation since 2008. >From all accounts those schools have been very successful. Granville County Public Schools just partnered with Vance-Granville Community college this fall to open its own Early College High School. That school is located across the street from the Vance-Granville southern campus in Butner. The school will share a building with the new public library that is being built. The students will take their high school classes there and their college classes at Vance-Granville.
A similar partnership was brought about this summer between Franklin County Schools and Vance-Granville. Franklin County Commissioner Sidney Dunston, Vance-Granville President Randy Parker, Franklin County Schools Superintendent Eddie Ingram and I gathered to discuss ways of creating an Early College High School in Franklin County. Also present at the meeting were representatives from the New Schools Project. As a result of this meeting, and a lot of hard work by the parties involved, we were able to secure funding for an Early College High School to begin operation this spring semester. The school will be temporarily located on the Franklin County campus of Vance-Granville while a more permanent location is being arranged.
These Early College High Schools have received nothing but praise from the local officials most directly connected with their establishment. Tim Farley, the Granville County Superintendent said of the high schools that they “have been instrumental in Granville County Schools in helping high school teachers better prepare students for the 21st Century.” Eddie Ingram, speaking about the potential benefits of the new school in Franklin County, said “this initiative is a great opportunity for the children of Franklin County. Early exposure to college life and to academic rigor with an extensive amount of support will provide an excellent opportunity for these students to get a jump start on college.” And Randy Parker, whose community college is involved with all of the Early College schools in the area, expressed his thoughts, saying “the project provides these high school students options to improve their learning, graduation rates and college readiness. These programs and the educational results they will produce will help our region, and the state, be globally competitive in the future’s marketplace.”
This innovative program of providing advanced college level education to our high school students is a step in the right direction of preparing our children to face the real world. This program increases the likelihood that these students will graduate from high school and be successful and contributing members of our society.
NC HIGH RISK INSURANCE POOL
One of the biggest problems with our current health care system is that insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Many of us, myself included, receive health insurance through our jobs. But for many others, those who are self employed or do not have health insurance provided through their employer, insurance is purchased privately. Those people are forced to pay incredibly high insurance premiums, if they are offered health coverage at all.
You may be asking why insurance companies would turn down new customers. The reason is simple. Insurance companies want people to purchase insurance, but they don’t want them to use it. When people use their insurance, the insurance companies have to pay out money. The less money they have to pay out, the more money those companies make. So certain people are not offered coverage because there is a high likelihood that they will use the insurance and that would lessen the insurance companies’ profits. These patients are deemed to be “high risk”. This is where the High Risk Insurance Pool comes in.
By pooling all the high risk patients in a given state (North Carolina isn’t the only state to have one of these), high risk patients are given access to insurance coverage. This pool is administered with a small tax payer subsidy, but the pool is mostly funded by those purchasing the insurance. These patients pay much more than the average for their health coverage and sometimes these premiums can be too much of an expense to purchase. This is one of the problems that exist with the High Risk Pools across the country, but things are looking better for North Carolinians.
This past month, North Carolina’s High Risk Insurance Pool received a federal grant of $1.5 million. This grant will allow for a discount of anywhere from 20% to 43% off of the current premiums being paid. Many of those who are eligible for the High Risk Pool will now be able to take advantage of the service.
It is vitally important that we make insurance available to all of our citizens. To learn more about the program, please visit here.
DISTRICT 7 FORUM
Next week we will be sending out our formal invitations for our yearly District Forum, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak as to what we have planned for this year. The Forum will be again held at Vance-Granville Community College in the Civic Center, and I am very appreciative of the college allowing us to use its space. Representatives Wray and Allen will be joining me in hosting the Forum, which will focus on job growth and job creation.
We are honored to welcome Secretary Keith Crisco of the NC Department of Commerce, Scott Ralls, President of the NC Community College System, and Billy Ray Hall, President of the NC Rural Economic Development Center. They will all make presentations and we hope they will all have time to answer your questions.
We are still finalizing the details of the forum and once we do we will have a more formal announcement. I hope to see all of you there.
As always, I look forward to your thoughts and comments on the issues discussed in the newsletter. Please feel free to respond to any issue whether it was covered in the newsletter or not. It is an honor to serve as your State Senator, and I will do everything in my power to live up to that honor.
Sincerely,
Doug Berger