• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

EDITORIAL: It Just Adds Up: UNC Plus School of Science and Math Equals Success

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 06:00 CDT

By The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Apr. 18--North Carolina's elite high school for science and math has an excellent academic record. It immerses gifted students in those critical disciplines -- then sends, with the help of tuition grants, 75-80 percent of them into the state's public universities.

Yet when it comes to oversight and setting priorities, that important resource is on its own. It's not a part of either the public school system or the university system. Everyone agrees that needs to change, and agrees on how. All that remains is for the state legislature to act.

Last week the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to make the N.C. School of Science and Math in Durham a part of the UNC system. That followed a unanimous vote by the school's trustees in March to become a full-fledged member of the university system. If the legislature approves -- and it should -- the high school would become UNC's 17th campus.

In practical terms, the change would give the UNC system's general administration office in Chapel Hill a formal working and reporting relationship with the School of Science and Math. The UNC Board of Governors also would have more authority over it.

Currently, the school is loosely affiliated with the UNC system, yet the Board of Governors has no real say in what goes on. The School of Science and Math is independent, controlled by its trustees.

The advantages of a change are simple.

North Carolina needs to strengthen science and math education in its schools. The two players that could be highly influential in that effort -- the universities and the state high school devoted to those subjects -- should work as one. One obvious gain: possible expansion of the Science and Math School's successful distance-learning program, which reaches about 1,500 students across the state at a dozen "cybercampuses."

Another benefit: Accountability. In the eyes of the public, the university system is responsible for the School of Science and Math. Yet there is a gap in authority. The school should continue to make decisions about its curriculum. But for the sake of consistency, the school needs greater oversight from the UNC system.

Lawmakers should need no convincing. They should approve UNC's 17th campus.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

More News in this Category