Peachtree – Tri-County Community College now charges in-state tuition to residents of Fannin, Rabun, Towns and Union counties in Georgia, putting the college on even footing in north Georgia, where one community college has done the same for western North Carolina residents for years.
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State lawmakers approved legislation for a pilot program that will allow up to 100 Georgia residents to pay North Carolina in-state tuition to attend Tri-County – as long as they don’t displace North Carolina residents from attending.
The law was effective with the 2023-24 academic year. Tri-County President Donna Tipton-Rogers told college trustees at their Aug. 22 meeting that about 50 Georgia residents have taken advantage of the lower tuition so far.
The State Board of Community Colleges must report results of the pilot program to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee and the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly by Sept. 30. The pilot program expires at the end of the 2026-27 academic year.
Saving students
The opportunity saves Tri-County students from Georgia $3,077 per semester. The college charges $1,216 in-state tuition and $4,288 out-of-state tuition for 16 or more semester hours.
For less than 16 semester hours, the college charges $76 per hour for in-state and $268 for out-of-state, saving residents of neighboring Georgia counties $192 per hour.
Previous efforts in Raleigh were unsuccessful.
“Tri-County Community College has had bills in the legislature since 2019, but the efforts have been underway long before that ... to the extent that actually having the idea into a bill felt like a success in 2019,” said Stephen Wood, vice president for teaching and learning at the college.
“Given our proximity to Georgia and Tennessee, and given that our communities and families don’t stop at the state line, this has long been a goal of the college,” he added. “Workforce and economic development also don’t end at the state line. In addition, Georgia has awarded in-state tuition for residents of contiguous counties for a number of years. Those are just some of the motivating factors that made our Success Without Borders pilot program so important to us.”
The legislation
“The logical question would be, why in the world would we want to give Georgia students in-state tuition?” state Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), a primary sponsor of the bill, told ednc.org.
Gillespie the said geography of Georgia makes it easier for students in those four counties to come across state lines to Tri-County rather than go over the mountains to a school in Georgia.
Critic Rep. Mark Brody (R-Union) said in-state tuition is for North Carolina taxpayers.
“The purpose of funding education in North Carolina is to fund North Carolina citizens and residents, not to fund Georgia or any other state’s residents,” he told edna.org. “If Georgia has a problem with mountains, they might want to invest in a tunnel or something like that.”
North Georgia Technical College allows in-state tuition to North Carolina border counties under an informal policy. There are benefits to North Carolina.
“We rely heavily in my district on those Georgia residents to provide us a labor force,” Gillespie told ednc.org.
“We’re turning around and helping our workforce in North Carolina.”
The Georgia students provide additional enrollment and revenue without significant added costs – even with the discount. Tri-County has the capacity to take these extra students, and so extra resources aren’t needed, Gillespie said.