Lawmakers must pledge to fund higher education
There’s nothing like a college education to bridge the gap between talent and opportunity. But if tuition at Tennessee’s colleges and universities keeps speeding skyward, those opportunities will be a dream denied to thousands of poor children.
The Tennessee Board of Regents Friday raised tuition 9.7 percent at five universities and 13 community colleges, 12.5 percent at the University of Memphis, and 15 percent at the system’s 26 technology centers. Higher education officials say a combination of increased costs and continued flat funding from the legislature are the culprits.
Tennessee is scarcely alone in the upward spiral of its tuition rates. According to a recent study by the College Board, tuition at the nation’s public colleges and universities increased by more than 10 percent on average this year while student loans for a second year outpaced grants.
But few states have experienced the explosive increases in tuition that Tennessee has. In just the past five years, tuition at Tennessee’s public colleges and universities has increased roughly 60 percent.
This latest hike would push that past 70 percent. And the reason for this is that the state is moving costs to students because the legislature refuses to address its failing revenue system.
Tennessee’s lottery scholarships are certainly welcome. But what the legislature gives with one hand, it takes away with the other in failing to properly fund the operating and capital needs of its campuses.
If Tennessee has any chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and low-skill jobs which still afflicts far too many communities, Gov. Phil Bredesen and state lawmakers will have to change their funding priorities. In short, they will have to make a bold commitment to fund higher education adequately.