College students are beginning to question the value of their education as the state is actively working to make education more expensive in a time when jobs are harder to come by. In addition to rising tuition, grants are disappearing and the debt load students are graduating with is rising. And this after the state has already taken a hatchet to higher education budgets in recent years.

What is the message here? Don't go to college? Or, go to college but don't expect much? We don't really want an educated populace after all?

From The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer:

With tuition rising, university officials see a need for more financial aid. But budget plans for 2011-2012 proposed by both Gov. Perdue and the state House would provide far less than the $71 million in new money the UNC System has requested for the need-based grant program.

Perdue's plan would add no new funding to the $162 million in this year's budget, while the House plan would reduce it by $35 million. The Senate's view of the need-based aid program is not yet clear.

Read the entire article, by Eric Ferreri, here.