{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/memphis-daily-news-tennessee-promise-draws-criticism-amid-rising-tuition", "Memphis Daily News: Tennessee Promise Draws Criticism Amid Rising Tuition", "2016-10-27", "2016", "2016-10", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "MTSU student Emily Webb cobbled together enough money to pay for her first year and a half of expenses.\u00a0\nBut in the last year she had to borrow $5,000 to keep alive her dream of earning a degree from Middle Tennessee State University as tuition and living costs have increased each year.\nAs a first-generation college student, the McGavock High School graduate from Nashville found it challenging enough to apply for scholarships through the FAFSA process required to apply for Tennessee\u2019s Hope Scholarship and any other available financial aid.\u00a0\nEven after receiving the money made available through the state\u2019s lottery, she lacked the funds to pay for the rest of her tuition, housing, meals, books and living expenses, which is edging up to about $15,000 a year.\nWebb, 20, a junior majoring in global studies and minoring in international relations, was fortunate enough to land a Dream Scholarship to cover the rest of her expenses early on.\nWhen the money started drying up, she had to borrow, even though as vice president of marketing for the Student Government Association, she puts in eight hours a week in the SGA office, in addition to guiding prospective students on MTSU\u2019s Blue Tour and working occasionally in the Grand Ole Opry\u2019s concession stand in Nashville.\nEven in hock for college costs, Webb says she\u2019s one of the \u201clucky ones,\u201d compared to others who are $20,000-plus in debt. The average is $25,000 to $27,000 for graduates in Tennessee.\n\u201cWhat I\u2019ve noticed is it puts stress on college students because in general we weren\u2019t really taught how to handle money or anything, besides taking a personal finance class in high school,\u201d she says, adding high schools need to emphasize money management.\nMore than that, Webb says, \u201cHaving the stress and being overwhelmed with having to come up with thousands of dollars can be detrimental to students and can be the reason they end up dropping out or don\u2019t even attend college.\u201d\nWebb says several friends from her freshman year wound up dropping out because they couldn\u2019t afford college, saying they would come back after a semester when they could afford it.\n\u201cBut a lot of times they don\u2019t end up coming back, and it\u2019s really sad because nowadays you really need a college education to have a really good job,\u201d she adds.\u00a0\nOn the rise\nStudents at four-year universities across Tennessee are paying about twice as much for tuition as they did a decade ago. Increases were in the 7 percent range but have dropped back to about 2 to 3 percent in the last couple of years.\nIn-state tuition at MTSU has gone up annually, jumping to $6,930 this year from $3,828 in 2006-07. At the University of Memphis, it went up to $7,860 from $4,388 10 years ago.\nAt the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, tuition increased in a similar fashion, to $9,028 for students enrolled before 2013-14 and $10,376 for those admitted in 2013-14 from $4,830 in 2006-07. Students admitted after 2013-14 are paying $10,678 a year in tuition.\nTuition has gone up similarly at Tennessee\u2019s community colleges, up to $3,930 on average from $2,230 10 years ago. Consider, too, that tuition at community colleges was only about $175 30-plus years ago.\nThe Hope Scholarship provides an average of $4,000 a year for students at four-year colleges and $1,500 for community college students, about $3,000 short of coverage tuition at MTSU and $6,600 less than needed for UT-K, not to mention room, board and living expenses.\nBut students who go the JUCO route or to Tennessee\u2019s colleges of applied technology, under the two-year-old Tennessee Promise scholarship can be admitted tuition free, provided they meet a few requirements such as community service and talking with mentors, etc. They don\u2019t have the same type of GPA and ACT requirements as those applying for the Hope Scholarship.\nIn 2015-16, its first year, Tennessee had 16,291 Promise Scholarship recipients, 1,986 at technical schools, 13,923 at community colleges, a high of 1,332 at Motlow State, and 382 at private schools such as Bethel, Bryan College, Carson Newman, Cumberland Hiwassee and Martin Methodist.\u00a0\nTennessee Promise is one of Gov. Bill Haslam\u2019s favorite programs, funded with reserve money in the lottery\u2019s Hope Scholarship fund. He says it\u2019s necessary to help Tennessee meet his Drive to 55 goal of 55 percent of Tennesseans holding a degree or certificate of higher education by 2025.\nIt\u2019s a laudable goal but one that some officials believe could use a different approach.\nU.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat who sponsored the legislation leading to the state lottery and the Hope Scholarship while serving in the General Assembly, is a frequent critic of the Tennessee Promise program.\u00a0\nCohen contends President Barack Obama\u2019s American College Promise program would supplement existing college aid programs instead of supplanting them, as he says Tennessee Promise does.\nHe argues the Promise \u201crobs\u201d existing lottery scholarship program by taking $500 per year from college students who \u201cworked hard\u201d in high school and maintained those grades to earn the Hope Scholarship to attend a four-year or community college.\u00a0\nIt also reduces by $125 per semester the Hope Access Grants for low-income students who make the grades to go to four-year colleges, he says.\nCohen also points out the Promise is a \u201clast-dollar\u201d program, meaning it covers only the cost of tuition, not housing, books or school-related expenses. In addition, he believes it helps wealthier and \u201cless-accomplished\u201d students rather than those who achieved the grades and test scores need to qualify for the Hope funds.\nThe congressman says he asked Haslam to increase the income threshold for Hope Access grants or raise the awards.\u00a0\n\u201cI hope that Gov. Haslam and the Legislature will consider increasing the amount of the Hope Lottery programs this year (2016), as they have not been raised to compensate for the rise in tuition during the past eight years \u2013 and, in fact, were lowered by the passage of Tennessee Promise,\u201d he writes on his website.\nBut state lawmakers didn\u2019t broach the idea during the last two years. More talk surfaced about freezing tuition than about increasing the Hope Scholarship award.\nA move from both directions would be beneficial, because while some lawmakers blame universities for burgeoning budgets, higher education officials point out the burden of funding for higher education has flip-flopped with students and parents carrying the majority of a 60-30 split than vice versa.\nState Sen. Bill Ketron, a Murfreesboro Republican who co-chairs the Legislature\u2019s Fiscal Review Committee, says he doesn\u2019t expect any increase in Hope Scholarship for several more years.\nFour-year students, on the other hand, say relief is needed immediately, especially with college student debt nationwide at about $1 trillion.\nWhile MTSU student Webb sees the need for Tennessee Promise and even applied for it in case something didn\u2019t work out in her effort to attend MTSU, she says state leaders need to shift their philosophy.\n\u201cI think they should start getting that (Promise money) into the four-year program and maybe getting our first two years paid for at a university,\u201d Webb suggests.\nIf the state\u2019s goal truly is to help people earn a diploma, they should take Emily Webb\u2019s advice, because a college degree is a crucial part of finding a good career, but holding a $27,000 debt load is a tough way to start.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/memphis-daily-news-tennessee-promise-draws-criticism-amid-rising-tuition"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5963814221322536, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}