By DENISE A. RAYMO
MALONE — North Country counties have gone over budget by more than $160,000 in fees for 2009 for college students enrolled someplace else.
Yet much of the money spent stayed in the tri-county region.
HOW IT WORKS
Clinton Community College is sponsored by Clinton County, which contributed $2,252,000 to operate the school in 2009.
North Country Community College is co-sponsored equally by Franklin and Essex counties, who each contributed $1,140,000 this year.
Students must obtain a notarized Certificate of Residency from their home county to file with their college of choice.
A chargeback fee is attached to students who enroll at community colleges other than those within their home-county borders.
2009 TALLY
Clinton County set aside $260,000 for college chargebacks in 2009 but had spent $272,907 as of Dec. 30.
Essex County budgeted $550,000 for its out-of-county students but had paid out $653,617.
Franklin County budgeted $220,000 for this year and had so far spent $263,895.
WHERE THEY WENT
According to the three County Treasurer's Offices, most of the fees paid by Clinton County taxpayers went to North Country Community College in Saranac Lake, while Essex County residents spent the most sending their students to Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh.
Each paid Hudson Valley Community College in Troy the second-highest charge-back fees.
Essex County also has a number of students attend Adirondack Community College in Queensbury.
Franklin County also sends a little more than half of its fees to Clinton Community, but it has a number of students enrolled in Onondaga County Community College in Syracuse and Herkimer County Community College in Herkimer.
KEEPING THEM LOCAL
Essex County had the biggest disparity in 2009, paying out $103,617 more than it had budgeted, so far.
"We're seeing a lot more Essex County students going to school," said Essex County Treasurer Michael Diskin.
"But we need to find a way to get them going to North Country (Community College). We're paying $1 million a year (to support the college)."
He said part of the increase in enrollment "could be the economy.
"We're seeing more students go to Clinton Community, but there are also older people going back to school to get re-educated in another field having lost their job."
Residents in the northern-most communities opt to attend classes in Plattsburgh rather than driving to one of North Country's three campuses: Saranac Lake, Ticonderoga and Malone.
"Clinton has been getting a majority of our people from Chesterfield, Keeseville, Willsboro and Westport," Diskin said.
"And a lot of that has to do with location because they can get right on the (Adirondack) Northway."
Diskin said Essex County has considered a campaign to promote the local college to high-school students who are considering their higher-education options.
"We were going to go to the guidance counselors at the schools to have them steer students to North Country. But it has a lot to do with the courses the students want to study. Or if they have a friend who's going to Clinton or Hudson Valley, they want to go to Clinton or Hudson Valley, too."
E-mail Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com
