County-by-County Figures: NC GROW Eligibility in Your Area

RALEIGH

May 1, 2017

In his budget proposal, Common Ground Solutions for North Carolina, Governor Cooper proposed the NC Getting Ready for Opportunities in the Workforce scholarship (NC GROW). The program is free community college that covers last dollar tuition and fees to any NC Community College for recent high school graduates who make a certain grade point average and who have exhausted other sources of financial aid.

New county-by-county data show that if the NC GROW scholarship were in place for the 2016 school year, more than 51,000 recent high school graduates would have been eligible for the program if they had unmet needs and the right grades.

“Investments in education are investments in our economy, said Governor Cooper. “If we’re going to make North Carolina a Top Ten Educated State by 2025, we have to make higher education even more accessible for recent high school graduates. The NC GROW Scholarship will help give our young people the skills they need in a 21st century economy, and I urge legislators to include this funding in their budget.”

In his budget, Governor Cooper laid out an ambitious agenda to make North Carolina a Top Ten Educated State by 2025. Included in that goal is increasing the percentage of adults with some higher education from 38% to 55%. Republican and Democratic governors in several states across the county have implemented free community college with great success.

Here’s a look at how many estimated high school graduates in each North Carolina county would have been eligible for NC GROW in 2016 if they had an unmet need and the right grades:

County	Estimated Eligible Students
Alamance	921
Alexander	192
Alleghany	52
Anson	97
Ashe	155
Avery	89
Beaufort	338
Bertie	95
Bladen	215
Brunswick	483
Buncombe	992
Burke	488
Cabarrus	1,086
Caldwell	480
Camden	61
Carteret	370
Caswell	108
Catawba	1,037
Chatham	312
Cherokee	147
Chowan	72
Clay	33
Cleveland	635
Columbus	390
Craven	648
Cumberland	1,600
Currituck	110
Dare	162
Davidson	907
Davie	207
Duplin	378
Durham	939
Edgecombe	322
Forsyth	1,610
Franklin	280
Gaston	1,156
Gates	59
Graham	62
Granville	282
Greene	135
Guilford	2,178
Halifax	268
Harnett	586
Haywood	321
Henderson	527
Hertford	113
Hoke	180
Hyde	32
Iredell	896
Jackson	181
Johnston	1,315
Jones	59
Lee	449
Lenoir	418
Lincoln	471
Macon	180
Madison	68
Martin	146
McDowell	285
Mecklenburg	4,466
Mitchell	81
Montgomery	180
Moore	640
Nash	583
New Hanover	1,043
Northhampton	66
Onslow	793
Orange	482
Pamlico	56
Pasquotank	188
Pender	364
Perquimans	49
Person	229
Pitt	1,220
Polk	92
Randolph	865
Richmond	354
Robeson	710
Rockingham	537
Rowan	658
Rutherford	402
Sampson	477
Scotland	162
Stanly	372
Stokes	220
Surry	305
Swain	54
Transylvania	134
Tyrrell	18
Union	1,267
Vance	182
Wake	5,104
Warren	59
Washington	80
Watauga	171
Wayne	793
Wilkes	477
Wilson	515
Yadkin	184
Yancey	90
Total	51,100
Source: NC Community College System data on fall 2016 enrollees

County-by-County Figures: NC GROW Eligibility in Your Area Understanding the Local Impact of Governor Cooper’s Proposed NC GROW Scholarship

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