Workers deprived of lottery aid shoulder heavy losses

Selasia Jenkins, left, and Angie Blubaugh, who are taking nursing assistant classes at Greenville Tech, are among those who don't qualify for lottery scholarships because of the training program they're in. Patrick Collard/Staff e-mail this story print this story Related Online extra • Special Report: Starting Over

_____Top stories_____

Now she attends nursing assistant classes and continues to work 40 hours a week in order to pay the bills for her family. But her paycheck makes her ineligible for certain financial aid, and the training program doesn't qualify her for lottery scholarship money.

She's not alone. The state's system of providing scholarships and loans for worker retraining has left some students fending for themselves. The ones who fall through the cracks are racking up credit card debt, borrowing money from family or stretching themselves between work and school.

They can't get lottery-funded scholarships, even though the $2.6 billion education lottery was pitched to voters who approved it in November 2000 as a way to provide free technical college educations to state residents.

"There are thousands and thousands of people putting money into the lottery," said Selasia Jenkins, one of Blubaugh's classmates. "Money should be available for courses like this."

Greenville Tech President Tom Barton said the unemployed need help, and quick. "For God's sake, these people are broke," he said. "They've got families and homes and rent to pay."

Agencies are bracing for even more unemployed workers to push into an already burdened system. The state has lost 76,000 manufacturing jobs over the past five years, or 4.2 percent of its labor force and one of the worst percentage losses in the nation, The Greenville News reported last month in a special report.

The manufacturing sector still employs 268,000, or nearly 15 percent of the state's labor force, meaning thousands more could be forced to start over if the jobs continue to drain toward low-wage countries, the paper reported.

Some don't qualify for aid because their job-training programs don't count for credit toward a degree. Others, who do qualify by enrolling in degree-seeking programs, still have to pay hundreds of dollars a semester because scholarships don't cover the full cost of tuition.

"You need to have other options for people who do fall between the cracks," said Steve Hand, director of the Quick Jobs with a Future program at Greenville Tech.

For some, the answer lies in tapping the $2.6 billion the lottery has grossed since stores began selling scratch-off tickets in January 2002.

Nearly $224 million in lottery profits will go toward education this fiscal year, including eight scholarship and financial aid programs. The biggest chunk, nearly $93 million, went to the LIFE scholarship, which helps qualifying students pay for associate, bachelor and professional degrees.

Former Gov. Jim Hodges, who made passage of a lottery for education a key issue of his 1998 gubernatorial campaign, said the Legislature has directed millions in lottery profits to buy school buses, fund enhancements for research universities and pay for scholarships that existed before the lottery started.

Hodges said he intended that the lottery pay the full tuition for technical college students, including those who lost their jobs and want to be retrained. "I think you've got to look at putting the lion's share of the dollars where you have student access, and that's at the two-year institutions," Hodges said.

But some caution that lottery money shouldn't be counted on as a steady source of funding for any type of scholarship. State lottery officials expect to lose as much as $34.2 million a year if North Carolina approves its own state lottery and its residents quit crossing the border to buy South Carolina tickets.

More students could be going after a shrinking pot.

State Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, said he would support more funding for worker training even if it means using lottery money.

"It would more than pay for itself because it would take you off the unemployment list and make you a taxpayer," said Anderson, a member of the Senate Education Committee.

The Quick Jobs program is set up to train workers at a cost of $400 to $1,000 per course and put them to work within three months, Hand said. More than 6,900 students have enrolled in it since the program began three years ago, and 70 percent to 90 percent have found jobs, he said.

Students in those courses don't qualify for lottery-funded help because they don't earn credit toward a degree, Hand said.

Stephanie Rice said she could have used the help. She wasn't making enough as a front desk clerk to pay the tuition for her nursing assistant classes, she said, so her mother charged it to her credit card.

"Now that she's out of work, it's really hard," Rice said. "It was a gift from her. She doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to pay her back once I get enough money."

More than 31,000 Upstate workers turned to the Workforce Development Office in 2004 for help, including aid that pays for Quick Jobs courses.

Dean Jones, the office's Greenville County director, said he wishes he could provide more federal funds to unemployed workers who don't qualify because their spouses remain employed.

"Their lifestyle is geared around the two wages," he said. "Their bills, their tuition, their kids' college — all of those things are taken into account when you're doing household budgeting."

Blubaugh said she doesn't qualify for federal funds under the Workforce Incentive Act because she still has a job. She said being employed shouldn't matter.

"I'm still broke," she said.

Hand said he has seen unemployed workers break down in tears. Many spent more than 30 years in manufacturing jobs after dropping out of high school without earning a diploma.

"What we tell them is, 'We're here to help you,'" he said, "'So let us help.'"

Blubaugh said she plays the lottery occasionally and estimated that she has contributed about $200 this year to the pot that is putting other students through college. She is dealing with the consequences of not being able to draw from those funds herself.

"If I didn't have to pay for this course, I could've had money to put toward my bills this month," she said. "I wouldn't have to be working as hard to keep everything caught up."

More than half of lottery players have a household income below $50,000, according to a December 2004 survey funded by the state Education Lottery Commission. Seven percent of the 1,501 respondents told surveyors they had an income of less than $10,000.

Most of the unemployed manufacturing workers in Quick Jobs made about $16 an hour, or $33,000 a year, before their layoffs, Hand said.

Students can qualify for lottery tuition assistance if they go for a degree, but it typically takes months longer to learn trades through those programs. Even if they do qualify for aid, they can end up paying several hundred dollars per semester.

The average tuition at the state's 16 technical colleges for spring semester is $1,345, while lottery tuition assistance picks up a maximum of $924.

Tuition assistance will fall to $744 because more students than expected signed up for the summer semester.

James Hudgins, executive director of the state Technical College System, said he wants the Legislature to set aside money exclusively for displaced plant workers. All of the state's technical colleges have continuing education courses but few have programs as well-funded as Quick Jobs, he said.

"These laid off workers are up in York and Union and Williamsburg and in counties where the local college might not be able to assist them," Hudgins said.

More than 10,000 students a year pursue non-credit job training at Tri-County Tech. While some have employers that pay, many receive limited aid or nothing, said Neil Lark, director of continuing education.

"A significant portion are either self-paying or putting it on charge or hoping for some kind of assistance," he said.

In some cases, students don't realize they qualify for aid or don't know how to apply.

Jenkins said she took one look at the lengthy form she would have had to fill out to qualify for federal funds and decided to ask her husband for the money instead.

"I always let my husband handle the finances, so I could never answer some of those questions," she said.

A bill in the state House would help cut down on paperwork by allowing some students to skip the Federal Student Aid application in favor of a shorter form. Students must fill out the "FAFSA" to qualify for the LIFE scholarship or lottery tuition assistance.

The bill wouldn't have helped Jenkins because the long application she was asked to fill out wasn't the FAFSA. But the proposal would help students who know they won't qualify for federal aid but hope to qualify for the lottery funding.

While many students fall through the cracks, it's older textile workers who are hit particularly hard, said the Rev. Benjamin Snoddy, a member of the state Technical College System Board.

"They're up in age and near retirement and all of a sudden there's nothing," he said. "They've got to look at starting all over again."

Paul Alongi can be reached at 298-4746.