Republican bill grants lawmakers power over community colleges, cuts Cooper’s sway

North Carolina lawmakers are set to consider a bill Wednesday that would grant the Republican-led General Assembly more control over the 58-campus community college system, taking away power from the governor, members of the Council of State and local leaders.

The bill would also give the system president more power while reducing the authority of the community college governing board.

Republican sponsors say the bill will lead to a more effective and coordinated system, but Democrats see it as a detrimental power transfer.

Senate Bill 692, or the “Community College Governance” bill, builds upon House Bill 149, which passed the Senate. If passed into law, HB 149 would reassign the final decision on naming the community college system president from the State Board of Community Colleges to the Republican-led General Assembly, as previously reported by The News & Observer.

The proposals come as the state board is without a permanent president and is seeking a replacement for Thomas Stith, who resigned as president in July. Bill Carver is serving as the interim president.

As it is now, the board would select the new president, with a hiring choice expected soon.

Power transfer

In August, the board created a presidential search committee tasked with picking and interviewing candidates before inviting the full board to interview finalists and vote. The committee was to attempt to complete the search process by January 2023, according to the community college’s website.

By giving the final say to the General Assembly, SB 692 could affect that hiring process.

The board currently “has authority to adopt and administer all policies, regulations, and standards which it deems necessary for the operation” of the community college system, according to law. The board appoints and can kick out the system president.

Under SB 692, the power to appoint the president would transfer from the board to the General Assembly.

The president would also become the system’s chief administrative officer and hold “executive authority” over the system, shifting much decision-making power from the board to the president.

Administrative tasks shifting from the board to the president would include “reviewing reports and programs related to the success of community college students who transfer to a UNC System school and making recommendations for programs and courses of study,” according to a news release sent out by Senate Republicans.

In the news release, Republicans wrote that this bill “empowers the next Community Colleges System President to have a greater say in the administration of the System” and allows the president “to deploy resources more effectively across North Carolina and allows our community colleges to work together in a coordinated approach.”

Republicans wrote that the board had been “bogged down by making administrative decisions” better handled by the president and staff.

Republican Sen. Amy Galey — a main sponsor of the bill and Senate Education Committee chairwoman — told The News & Observer Monday that “the current system is not working as well as it should or could. The most important thing is that we have an educated workforce.”

“It’s time to start talking about it, and it’s time to start addressing the systemic problems in the community college system that make it not as responsive to the needs of prospective employers as it should be.”

Other main bill sponsors are Republican Sens. Todd Johnson and Tom McInnis. Senate leader Phil Berger is among its co-sponsors.

Strip governor’s power?

SB 692 would also strip Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of the power to appoint 10 members to the state board and reassign this authority to the General Assembly, adding to the eight members it can already elect.

In recent years, the Republican-led legislature has made gains in carving away power from Cooper and his successors, most recently with a law that removes direct oversight of the state’s three residential schools for blind and deaf students from the State Board of Education, largely made up of Cooper appointees. Earlier this year, a Republican law took effect limiting his and future governors’ powers to issue and continue executive orders.

Sam Chan, a spokesperson for Cooper, wrote that “North Carolina’s economic development has set records over the last few years and this bill will significantly damage our job recruiting efforts if a Governor has no appointments to any community college boards.”

At the campus level, the bill reduces college trustee boards to 12 members, down from 13, by doing away with a nonvoting seat for a student representative.

Trustee member appointment would also change: eight would be appointed by the General Assembly and four by the local county board of commissioners. As of now, four trustees are appointed by the local school boards, four by county commissioners and four by the governor, with one representing the student body.

“The Governor is the chief economic recruiter for the state, community college workforce training is a critical part of coordinated job recruitment and it makes no sense to destroy a system that is working well simply to gain political power,” Chan wrote. “This move will hurt North Carolina long after Governor Cooper leaves office and we urge legislators not to pass this harmful legislation.”

According to the state’s constitution, the General Assembly “shall provide for the selection of trustees of The University of North Carolina and of the other institutions of higher education.” Galey pointed to that language and said that when the community college system was taken from under the oversight of of the State Board of Education in the early 1980s, it “was a clear violation of the Constitution.”

The bill would also reduce state board membership from 22 to 21 this summer and to 18 by 2027. Appointed members would no longer have to include a member to represent the six different regions of the state, and there would no longer be a member representing students.

By 2027, the state treasurer, labor commissioner and lieutenant governor would also be eliminated from the panel.

Decision made in a ‘vacuum’

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, the Senate Democratic whip, said this bill is “probably the most significant (change) in the last quarter century.”

“It would have made sense to have had a commission to examine best practices around the country in a bipartisan fashion and then present and discuss those recommendations so we’re not making change without stakeholder input,” he said, “What are the opinions of local community colleges? What’s the opinion of the governor’s office? What’s the opinion of the business community? What’s the opinion of students that attend community colleges?’”

“This appears to be a decision that was made in a vacuum without any input from stakeholders, and it’s difficult to get buy-in for such a significant overhaul of the community college system without the necessary input from those stakeholders,” he said.

Galey, asked by The N&O about what the bill drafting process was like and whether those affected had a say, said she did not have “any comment about that.”

Senate Democrats voted against HB 149, which was rolled into Senate Bill 692.

Chaudhuri said Democrats had “seen this play” for power by Republicans before, with the UNC System. The system’s governing board is entirely appointed by members of the state’s Republican-majority General Assembly.

Boards of trustees at the system’s member universities are elected in part by the UNC Board of Governors and in part by the General Assembly.

The governor was previously able to make some university appointments; that power was stripped from the office in a 2016 law passed as former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory left office and Cooper entered, as previously reported by The N&O.

Galey said that feedback to her on the bill had come from “individuals concerned that they won’t be appointed or reappointed, rather than anyone saying why structurally, it shouldn’t be done.”

“I haven’t heard anybody offering alternatives.” Galey said.

She said she had not talked to the governor or anyone on his staff but had heard from people at the local level, such as school boards, concerned about losing their appointment ability.

Galey said she had no plans to amend the bill and that she would like to hear what the critics had to say about the constitutional language on appointment power.