Around March 25th, Governor Beverly Perdue published her proposed budget for the two-year period of 2009-2011. (North Carolina budgets are always for a two-year period.) The Governor's proposed budget for Governor's School would cut funding for the School by 60% and reduce enrollment by half - to 400 students, beginning in 2010. This would almost certainly have been accomplished by eliminating one of the two campuses. Given the budget shortfalls that the state is experiencing, all departments at all levels are under scrutiny to do the best they can with fewer resources, and the Exceptional Children's Section at the Department of Public Instruction, which houses Governor's School is no exception.

Obviously, the GSAA believes that Governor's School is a great program that prepares North Carolina's gifted high school students for the challenges of the future, and that cutting GS would be a short-sighted move on the part of the Legislature. Governor's School already does incredible work on what can only be described as a paltry budget. GS is the best investment in our future that the state provides. Thus, we began a process to encourage our legislators to fully fund Governor's School.

You can help in this process. Join our Yahoo Forum or our Facebook Group, which we are using to inform alumni of our needs and deeds in defense of Governor's School.

Yahoo Group: Click Here

Facebook Group: Click Here or search for 'Governor's School of North Carolina Alumni'.

Following is a chronolgy of events to date.

Late March - Governor Perdue's Budget is Published

The Governor's proposed budget removes $789,000 from the current $1,325,000 buget for Governor's School and calls for a reduction in the number of students from 800 to 400. See the Governor's full budget proposal for details.

March 25-27 - Buddy Spong brings situation to the attention of the GSAA

GS Foundation President Buddy Spong sends E-mail to GSAA President Jim Hart, informimg him of the situation. Jim publishes the following two messages to the GSAA via Yahoo and Facebook.

Dear GSAA Class Representatives,

While we are still in the information-gathering stages, preliminary information we are receiving about the North Carolina budget for 2010-11 indicates that in light of the state's current budget shotfall, there are plans in the works to cut Governor's School in half and return it to a single campus with only 400 students, such as it was prior to 1978. I received this information from Buddy Spong, President of the Governor's School Foundation, and I am currently seeking confirmation and further information from Tom Winton, Section Chief for Exception Children's Services at the Department of Public Instruction. It is this section at the DPI that has authority over Governor's School.

In my personal opinion, one that I suspect you all share, cutting the GS budget is exactly the wrong thing for the state to do. Our current economic crisis is a serious issue for our nation and our state. But the answer to that challenge is not to contract, but to arm ourselves with the knowledge, skills, and education we need to meet the challenges of our times. There is a national call to make progress in the areas of alternative enegy, combatting global climate change, improving education, and making health care more affordable. These and many other initiatives will strengthen our economy, both nationally and here in North Carolina. The Governor's School program is designed to give our state's best, brightest, and most energetic young people the skills and knowledge they will need to rise to these callenges and lead us into our bright future. So it is unbelievable to me that the state would seek to curtail the program that is part of our best hope for solving the problems that plague us today.

In the coming days, I will pass along any information that I am able to discover about this issue. As a group, we will need to make our voices heard, in the Governor's Office, in the Legislature, and at the Department of Public Instruction, to make sure that Governor's School is understood to be a part of the solution to our economic problems, one that we cannot afford to lose.

Stay tuned, pass this along, and get ready to speak out.

This message was almost immediately followed by confirming information from the Department of Public Instruction.

Dear GS Alumni,

It did not take long for Tom Winton to reply to my request for information. The following link is to Governor Perdue's proposed budget for 2009-10 and 2010-11. If you scroll down to the section on Public Schools, page 7, there is a section on Governor's School that reads:

6. Governor's Schools

The Governor's Schools are held each summer for six weeks at two college campuses. Student selection is competitive. The current appropriation supports a total of 800 student participants. This recommended reduction eliminates the inflation built into both years of the 2009-11 continuation budget and decreases the appropriation to support 400 student participants in 2010-11.

Appropriation - Nonrecurring ($59,752) ($789,409)

To understand these numbers, it is important to know that the budget for Governor's School has been roughly $1.3 million for the past few years. The numbers listed above show that nearly $60K will be removed from the GS budget for the period beginning July 1, 2009, and a loss of $789K, or 61%, of the GS budget for the period running from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. This cut would impact the 2010 summer session. And as you can see from the text, the plan is to reduce the number of students served from 800 to 400. Tom Winton could not say specifically, but it is most likely that the School would shrink to only one campus.

It is also important to note that these reductions are listed as nonrecurring. In budget terms, that means that these are one-time-only reductions and that unless something happens to extend them, the budget for GS would return to previous levels in 2011. It is my belief, however, that once the infrastructure to support two campuses has been dismantled, the chance of it staying permanently dismantled is fairly high.

I will be conferring with the Officers to determine our response to this issue, but you can expect a call to action in the very near future.

Thank your for your continued support of Governor's School.

Jim Hart
GSAA President

March 28-April 3, 2009 - Debate and Message

For about a week, we spent some time on the NCGSAA Forum talking about the needs of Governor's School, how best to frame our reponse, who best to carry it, and to whom we should deliver it. All of this debate came to a halt on April 4th...

April 4, 2009 - Senate to Vote

While we knew the budget would have to be passed by mid-summer, we did not know exactly how soon the vote would be. On Saturday, April 4th, we found out that the Senate vote on the 2009-2011 budget would be held sometime during the following week. So we found ourselves with only 48 hours to get our message out to the Alumni and into the hands of the Senators who would soon be voting. A request was sent out for all Alumni to E-mail their own Senators, plus the members of the Senate Educational Appropriations Subcommittee and the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of GS. On Monday, April 6, Jim Hart and Cynthia Ball visited the Legislature and spoke with Senators Linda Garrou and A.B. Swindell. While neither could make any promises, they were open to the discussion of GS.

April 9, 2009 - Senate Votes to return a portion of GS Funding

On April 9th, the Senate voted on the revised budget package for 2009-2011. In that package, Governor's School received $350,000 more than in Governor Perdue's budget proposal, with a mandate for 600 students.