{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/tennessee-needs-start-over-tennessee-promise", "Tennessee needs to start over with Tennessee Promise", "2017-08-28", "2017", "2017-08", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "New York Times columnist David Leonhardt recently highlighted the current trend to focus on vocational training as a cure-all for job preparedness, student debt and poor matriculation.\nAs Leonhardt points out, vocational education may be beneficial in the short term but the long-term prospect will leave workers out in the cold. Leonhardt states, \u201cVocational education, done right, helps workers find jobs when they are young. But as they age \u2014 and job requirements change \u2014 workers are often not well prepared for the changes, according to the study, published in The Journal of Human Resources. Rather than retraining workers, many companies decide to let them go and hire other workers.\u201d\nLeonhardt emphasizes vocational training should not come at the expense of general education. He recommends prioritizing and expanding efforts to increase four-year college graduates who receive a \u201cbroad, flexible education\u201d who will have a much better chance in the job market and will be able to adapt to market changes.\nLeonhardt\u2019s points are applicable to the Tennessee Promise program.\u00a0Gov. Bill Haslam and former Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd touted Promise as a panacea for joblessness and as \u201cfree\u201d or \u201cfound\u201d money because taxes were not raised to fund it.\u00a0 However, the price tag is very high for students who have shown the academic skills and work ethic to receive the Tennessee HOPE scholarship and succeed in receiving a four-year college degree.\nHOPE scholarships were reduced from $4,000 to $3,500 per year for freshmen and sophomores and the Aspire Award for students whose family income is $36,000 or less was cut from $3,000 per year to $2,250.\u00a0The HOPE and Aspire scholarships will never increase again as all future lottery revenue growth has been directed to Promise, reducing the HOPE scholarship to a stipend as tuitions rise.\nPromise recipients have five semesters to complete the two-year program so graduation rates for the first class are not yet available.\u00a0Still, some indicators are very discouraging.\nLess than 5 percent of the 1,300 students at Southwest Community College who began Promise two years ago completed the program.\u00a0In a May 2016 Tennessean story, Promise-architect Mike Krause, now executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, admitted that the significant number of Promise drop outs were academically unprepared for college. Conversely, the HOPE scholarship program has high retention and graduation rates because students arrive prepared for college, having worked to earn the scholarship in the first place.\nPromise, designed for students coming straight from high school, does not target the blue-collar group most in need of help.\nStanford professor\u00a0Eric Hanushek, a researcher of The Journal of Human Resources study,\u00a0recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that\u00a0\u201cThe largest problem of skills in the U.S. today isn\u2019t a shortage of young workers with specific competencies.\u00a0Instead it is a need for more general cognitive skills that give workers the ability to adapt to new circumstances and new jobs.\u201d\nTennessee needs to go back to the drawing board with Promise and consider the data in the study.\u00a0 Long term planning is essential for workers to have opportunities for good-paying jobs.\u00a0 Students with the aptitude and will to succeed should be rewarded with HOPE scholarships that reflect rising tuition so they do not graduate with crippling debt.\nAll tuition assistance programs should teach skills that are flexible and give people the tools needed to retain good-paying jobs throughout their working years.\nSteve Cohen, D-Memphis, represents District 9 in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a former state legislator, Cohen worked to create the Tennessee Education Lottery that funds the HOPE Scholarship.", 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/tennessee-needs-start-over-tennessee-promise"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8815792389214039, "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"}