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RALEIGH — North Carolina may have made money from illegal immigrants when they were allowed into the state’s community college system, a consultant told the N.C. Board of Community Colleges Thursday.

The oral report was a prelude to a full analysis due to be delivered in April.

On average it cost $5,375 per year to educate a student at one of the state’s 58 community colleges, said Gina Shkodriani, a researcher with JBL Associates of Maryland. Because undocumented students who were allowed into colleges between 2007 and 2008 paid out-of-state rates, their average tuition cost was $7,024.

“In a sense ... it’s a revenue,” Shkodriani said.

Exact figures varied from campus to campus, Shkodriani said. But at only one of the state’s 58 community colleges — Pamlico Community College — did a student cost more to educate than was covered by their full-time tuition.

The community college system hired JBL Associates following a complicated turn of events in 2007 and 2008.

In November 2007, the community college system formally opened its doors to illegal immigrants. In May 2008, the community college system reversed itself based on a letter from the N.C. Attorney General’s Office. To complicate matters further, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory later in the summer that it was up to each state to determine whether it would admit students in the U.S. illegally.

Since then, North Carolina has stuck to its policy of excluding students without proper documents, which the consultants placed among the most restrictive in the nation.

“The awkwardness of the situation is we’ve had four policy shifts in the past seven years,” said Stuart Fountain, chairman of the board’s policy committee.

JBL Associates is due to give a full written report along with policy recommendations to Fountain’s committee in April. After that, the committee will have to craft a policy for approval by the full board and then, Fountain said, by the state’s Rules Review Commission.

The consultants are looking at a variety of issues, including how other states handle illegal immigrants seeking admission to community colleges. Some states have a blanket ban on such students, said Alice Maginnis, a lawyer working with JBL. Others provide routes for such students to seek admissions, much like North Carolina did for a short time under the system’s 2007 policy.

Their recommendations are being watched closely by members of the General Assembly, who are divided over the issue.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Guilford County Democrat, said the consultant’s findings bolstered her efforts to re-open community colleges to those here illegally, much as the UNC system does now.

“I would hope they do,” Harrison said. “But I’m afraid some of the reaction I’m getting is about more than the tuition piece. It’s people upset about folks being here illegally... I’m not sure we’ll ever satisfy those critics.”

Sen. Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, has filed legislation to stop those here illegally from being admitted to the community college system.

“I don’t know that I concede the point that out-of-state tuition pays the cost of teaching someone 100 percent plus some,” Berger said.

That estimate, he said, does not factor in things such as paying debt services on buildings and other large capital equipment.

“The real issue is we’re providing a benefit to someone who came into this country illegally,” he said.

“If we do so, we’re going to encourage people to come here without taking the steps the law prescribes. It just doesn’t seem that complicated to me.”

Contact Mark Binker (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com