NC House committee passes scaled-back tuition break for public safety families

A bill that would provide free community college tuition to the children of North Carolina’s first responders and long-serving correctional officers cleared the state House Higher Education Committee on June 10.

Rep. Mike Schietzelt, R-Wake — lead sponsor for House Bill 1203, Family Support for Those Who Serve Act — said the bill is a workforce tool for agencies struggling to fill their ranks.

“We have issues with recruitment and retention,” he told the committee. “This is one tool that I think we can use to continue to recruit and retain, particularly correctional officers, but also our firefighters and our law enforcement.”

HB 1203 would apply to students at least 17 but not yet 24 years old whose parent, legal guardian, or custodian is a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or “experienced correctional officer,” a new category in state law for officers with at least 10 years of service. The waiver is tuition-only and wouldn’t cover fees or textbooks. Students would still need to meet each college’s admission standards.

Schietzelt said the version before the committee was a deliberately narrowed one. Lawmakers had weighed extending the benefit to four-year tuition and to the lower-cost NC Promise campuses, but limiting it to community colleges “wound up being the best option” because it carried a smaller price tag, he said.

Rep. Donna White, R-Johnston, asked how much the program would cost statewide. Schietzelt pegged the figure at about $2 million, based on the estimated number of students who would qualify, and argued the spending could pay for itself. 

“You put this money into this sort of a system, if it has the impact that you want, and you wind up recruiting and retaining even a few extra officers,” he said. “The savings on the other side of that could, I would think, easily exceed what we would have to put into this program over time.”

Several lawmakers pressed Schietzelt on who the bill leaves out. Rep. Brian Turner, D-Buncombe, asked whether probation officers — who fall under corrections but are not classified as correctional officers — could qualify. 

Schietzelt said they could not, at least not yet. “They would not be covered by this yet, although that’s a discussion that we just started having yesterday,” he said. “We need to look at the cost of that, but I think that’s something we’re certainly willing to consider adding to the bill.”

Turner said the omission concerned him given the risks those officers take on. “Our probation officers are being asked to go out, do home visits, check on people. They’re putting themselves in harm’s way,” he said. “A lot of times they are loaned out to different task forces that they’re working with other law enforcement officers, and so I want to make sure that they might be included as well.”

Rep. Howard Penny, R-Harnett, raised a different concern: The bill sets admission requirements but says nothing about academic performance. He pointed to the Central Carolina Promise program, which he said conditions aid on student grades.

“You don’t have anything in this bill about academic standards,” Penny said, noting the state would be “making a tremendous investment in that person.” 

Schietzelt said the current language leaves that decision to the colleges. “It says that the child shall meet admission and other standards considered appropriate by the community colleges,” he said. “Right now it leaves it open for the community colleges to determine academic standards, but if you have some ideas to make those a little bit firmer in statute, I would be happy to discuss that with you.”

The committee approved the measure on a voice vote, sending it to the House Appropriations Committee. If enacted, the law would take effect with the 2026-27 academic year.

“NC House committee passes scaled-back tuition break for public safety families” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.