PhD thesis,
State aid to private higher education in North Carolina: A historical description
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, PhD Thesis, (1982)
Abstract
As of January 1, 1980, all of the states except Wyoming and Nevada provide some type of aid to private higher education institutions. One state, North Carolina, began its efforts to provide state assistance to private higher education in 1971. This study is an indepth description of (1) the current status of that aid; (2) the political evolution of that aid; (3) the several different interest groups and individuals involved with (a) the legislation authorizing the aid and (b) the subsequent litigation contesting the legislation; and (4) the issue of state aid to private higher education in a national context. Currently, there are three general programs of state aid to private higher education in North Carolina: (1) the North Carolina State Contractural Scholarship Fund, (2) the North Carolina Legislative Tuition Grant Program and (3) the North Carolina Student Incentive Grant Program. The North Carolina statutes authorizing these programs of aid were held to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in Smith v. Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina (1977). For this study, the research utilized newspaper files, official reports, legal documents, letters, memoranda, related literature, House and Senate Journals, and Session Laws. Fifty interviews with principal actors were conducted, such as the present and former governors, legislators and citizen.
