When the General Assembly convenes for the short session on April 21, community college leaders will be on the lookout for one name: Propel NC.
The bulk of the North Carolina Community College System’s (NCCCS) legislative agenda focuses on passing a $93 million recurring request for Propel NC, an overhaul of the system’s funding model. The model’s goal is to move the NCCCS toward a labor-market-driven model of community college programs by prioritizing funding for high-wage, high-demand sectors.
First launched by system leaders in January 2024, this marks the third time the system’s legislative funding request focuses on Propel NC.
A closer look at Propel NC
The system’s state funding model was created in 2010 and last updated in 2013. Under this model, the system allocates resources to the colleges in proportion to the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students they enroll in each of their programs. Certain courses receive more state funds than others based on a four-tier funding model. You can read more about how community colleges are currently funded in this EdExplainer.
Under Propel NC, funding based on FTE would remain in place, but the current FTE tiers would shift to “workforce sectors” instead. In the 2024-25 school year, 35% of all students were enrolled in programs aligned with Propel NC workforce sectors, and over 37,000 students completed credentials within these sectors.
According to data shared with the State Board of Community Colleges in March, workforce demand in most Propel NC sectors outpaces the number of students completing credentials.
“In every case but one, we don’t have the graduates — we’re not putting out the graduates to meet the needs of our employers,” said Dale McInnis, chair of the Board’s strategic planning committee.
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Under Propel NC, all curriculum and continuing education (CE) courses would reside in the same workforce sector. A nursing curriculum and nursing CE course would be funded the same way, for example. The proposed sectors largely focus on health care, technology, and trades. Courses not on this list would be held harmless and retain their same value, but they would not be labeled in tiers. There would be a catch-all sector for transfer and general education courses.
Under the proposed model, courses would be ranked and valued by statewide salary job demand data. The course rankings would be updated every three years.
The system is requesting $68.5 million in recurring funding to modernize the workforce sector funding formula, incentivizing continuing education and programs tied to high-wage industries. The legislative agenda also calls for $24.4 million in recurring funds to strengthen the system’s base funding and ensure colleges have the staffing, tools, and services to support students and boost program completion.
Another nonrecurring $6 million request would create an enrollment growth reserve to help ensure stable funding for colleges which experience spikes in enrollment. As part of that request, the system is asking for a statutory change to distribute any surplus tuition revenue back to all colleges on a proportional basis, reflecting what each institution actually collected.
During last year’s long session, the House and Senate budget proposals included partial funding for Propel NC. The Senate allocated approximately $36.5 million recurring each year of the biennium for “workforce sector tier reorganization.” The House included $6 million for an enrollment increase reserve, and said the State Board of Community Colleges “may increase tuition rates to accommodate any revisions to the funding formula.” However, the General Assembly did not pass a comprehensive budget last session.
In February, Alex Fagg, the system’s vice president of government and external relations, said the system is exploring multiple pathways to get its priorities approved, despite the ongoing state budget impasse.
“Right now, our mindset is to prepare for anything and everything,” he said.
Enrollment growth funding
Beyond Propel NC, the system is asking legislators for an estimated $102 million nonrecurring to fund “historic” enrollment growth.
Data shared in March during a meeting of the State Board of Community Colleges showed that enrollment across the state’s 58 colleges had surpassed pre-pandemic enrollment for the first time since 2019. The data showed that both the number of students and the number of FTE students enrolled at community colleges increased by 23% from fall 2020 to fall 2025.
Compared with fall 2019, fall 2025 shows about a 10% increase in FTE and a 2% increase in total enrollment, the data showed.
During the State Board presentation, McInnis said the system is facing a “capacity ceiling” — without additional resources, the NCCCS cannot sustain further growth. That would leave the system unable to reach the more than 840,000 North Carolinians ages 22-44 with a diploma but no postsecondary credential that the NCCCS is not currently serving.
“If we can lift that ceiling with additional capacity, we can stay No. 1 in business, we can stay No. 1 in workforce across the country,” McInnis said in March. “But if we don’t, we’re going to lose our momentum, and we are going to see the growth that we’ve worked so hard to build at every college begin to wane.”
ApprenticeshipNC
Additional requests from the NCCCS include a $3.1 million recurring investment in ApprenticeshipNC, the state agency that registers apprenticeship programs and supports employers in setting up apprenticeship programs. According to the NCCCS legislative agenda, this investment would increase the state’s recurring investment to $4.3 million.
This additional funding would backfill the loss of federal grants, allowing the agency to maintain the same staffing level and marketing capacity. ApprenticeshipNC’s most recent annual report notes that U.S. Department of Labor grants supporting 65% of the agency’s operations will expire in June.
Without additional funding, the agency would lose 18 “apprenticeship experts,” which the report describes as the “state’s primary technical assistance providers,” and all its marketing and communications capacity.
Chris Harrington, director of ApprenticeshipNC, told EdNC the agency has lost seven staff members through regular attrition — but the agency has not backfilled those roles.
“We’ve been transparent on on the situation for funding, and people have looked for other opportunities, and as they’ve left, because of the uncertainty, we’ve not backfilled anything, because it would not make sense to do that,” Harrington said.
Harrington also said that the agency’s current funding model — mainly reliant on federal grants — is not sustainable.
“Many of our representatives in the General Assembly support registered apprenticeship. Certainly, the governor supports registered apprenticeship,” he said. “Well, it’s time for them to truly support it with funding to sustain the basic organization.”
Other NCCCS requests
System employees did not receive a raise last year due to the lack of a comprehensive state budget. The system’s legislative priorities include a request for pay raises for community college staff and faculty “in line with state employee rates to ensure the recruitment and retention of a high-quality workforce.”
The system’s agenda also requests funding for Board-approved multicampus centers at Alamance, Forsyth Technical, and Wake Technical community colleges.
Finally, the agenda asks legislators to include community colleges in capital and equipment funding proposals to address the nearly $3 billion in infrastructure needs identified across all colleges.
myFutureNC’s Workforce Act
myFutureNC, the state’s attainment-focused nonprofit, is also asking lawmakers to fund its Workforce Act of 2026, an advocacy agenda “to modernize education-to-workforce pathways across North Carolina.”
The agenda champions four policies, costing nearly $8.5 million. The largest of these is a $3.1 million recurring request for ApprenticeshipNC, which would allow the agency to create over 100,000 “new apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships” in the next decade, a myFutureNC document says.
The nonprofit is also requesting a $1.35 million recurring investment in North Carolina Workforce Credentials to “enhance and update” the state’s list of credentials, expand financial aid, and increase enrollment in credential pathways.
“Without stronger coordination and targeted support, learners struggle to access affordable credentials while employers face persistent talent shortages,” myFutureNC’s document for the pillar says.
myFutureNC is also seeking a nonrecurring $2.5 million investment “to improve transfer and reverse transfer systems,” and to improve the state’s digital transcript infrastructure by integrating North Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities. The funding would increase yearly “successful student transfers between community colleges and universities” to 10,000 and award more than 5,000 reverse‑transfer credentials in the next two years, according to myFutureNC.
Finally, the Workforce Act calls for a one-time $1.5 million investment to improve the NCcareers.org website, which myFutureNC said is used by over a million North Carolinians to plan their careers.
“Without accessible, high-quality career guidance, the state will continue to face talent shortages and delayed progress toward its attainment goal,” myFutureNC said.
Behind the Story
Analisa Sorrells Archer and Hannah Vinueza McClellan contributed reporting for this article.
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