Four Republicans, two Democrats and one Libertarian have announced their intentions to seek the governorship, and this May, voters will go to the polls to narrow the crowded primary field down to one Republican and one Democrat. More than likely the candidate who emerges from the Democratic primary will win the election because for the past sixteen years a Democrat has served as the governor.

In fact, only two Republicans (James Holshouser and Jim Martin) have lived in the Governor’s mansion in the past century. It helps that the Democratic candidates are better funded, enjoy greater name recognition, and have extremely effective and powerful field organizations. Thus the important question is – who will win the Democratic nomination and why does it matter to college students?

First, the governor appoints four members to each University’s 13-person Board of Trustees. The trustees are the primary body responsible for those gigantic campus-based tuition increases. Second, the governor can use his bully pulpit to advocate for affordability and accessibility. On numerous occasions, our current governor Michael Easley, submitted budgets to the General Assembly with no tuition increases or threatened to veto such measures that would raise the burden on students. So you can see – it does matter.

Now on to the more puzzling question… who will be victorious in the May Democratic primary – Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue or State Treasurer Richard Moore? The short answer is, I don’t know. However, we do know a little bit about their stances on tuition and higher education.

Perdue has proposed the following college assistance program. “…we should make an ironclad promise to students that the lack of family income will not be a barrier to their earning a college degree… In exchange, students will have to make the necessary grades, stay out of trouble, and serve their community. This is what I call the North Carolina Promise.” Although specific details are sparse, it appears Perdue is proposing that all qualified high school graduates should have the ability to attend and graduate from college debt free. On the surface the idea sounds great. My only question – how are you going to pay for it?

Unfortunately, to this date, Moore has said little about tuition and higher education except for the following, “Throughout North Carolina’s history, many of our leaders have demonstrated their vision and foresight to create one of the finest public higher education systems in the country… I will work diligently to ensure the system’s future success.” My response – I would hope so. However Moore is quick to point out on his blog (factcheckperdue.com) that “Perdue regularly and consistently supported college tuition increases at UNC System schools every session she served in the Senate. … In 1993 Perdue led the charge for a 29% tuition increase at UNC-CH and NCSU.”

This is just the beginning of my investigation into the candidates’ educational stances. One thing is for sure, there are a lot more questions than answers.

Tell Andrew which candidate you support for governor at [email protected]