Community colleges across the state are feeling the impact of budget cuts for the 2017-2018 year. One of the budget priorities of the NC Community College System is to create a stop-loss provision for colleges experiencing significant enrollment declines. This proposed budget item would help community colleges like Beaufort County Community College to minimize the effect of changes in student population.

Seven of the 58 community colleges will see their budgets drop by more than $1 million. Forty-four of the community colleges are projected to see their budgets reduced in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. The colleges range from large urban systems to rural ones like BCCC.

While North Carolina’s unemployment rate continues to stay above the national average, it has trended downwards, dropping from its seasonally adjusted high of 11.3 percent in March 2010 to 5.1 percent in December 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Throughout 2015 and 2016, unemployment has remained under 6 percent. Unfortunately, this trend sets into effect a cycle of punishment for community colleges. With local jobs more readily available, students skip college to enter the workforce, even at low wages.

“As enrollment declines in community colleges, so does our funding, which is tied to just a two-year average of our enrollment,” said BCCC president Barbara Tansey. “This short average opens community colleges to volatile fluctuations in budget as enrollment changes year to year.”

Aging populations in many rural areas also mean less enrollment in community colleges and a decrease in birth rates. Every one of the counties serviced by BCCC has lost population over the last six years, with Washington County losing more than 1,000 residents. The average resident of Beaufort and Washington Counties is now 44 years old.

This cycle of decline and divestment further exacerbates the problem of rural depopulation. While most of the community colleges will feel the decline of their budgets in the next year, this formula will be increasingly difficult for rural communities to handle. Manufacturers and health care providers are less likely to locate in communities where they will have trouble recruiting employees with appropriate training. Without employers that can pay a living wage, working families will continue to leave in search of work.

Stabilizing the budgets to protect from sudden drops in enrollment will help, but long-term solutions are also necessary. In BCCC’s service area alone, three of the counties have poverty rates of one in four. Beaufort County has a poverty rate of one in five. Community colleges have the potential to help residents gain employment that will support themselves and their families, but legislators need to find ways to make college accessible in a way that is also sustainable. Our rural communities will depend on it.

Attila Nemecz is the public relations coordinator at Beaufort County Community College.