2005-03-07 19:33:31
In November 2002, voters in Tennessee overwhelmingly passed a referendum in support of a lottery with the understanding that the proceeds would be used to provide aid to students in the form of scholarships based on academic merit and financial need. At this year’s State of the State address on Jan. 24, Gov. Phil Bredesen suggested taking $25 million in lottery money to fund a new pre-K program. Republican critics argued that this program could end up costing the state $275 million when fully developed statewide. Steve Cohen, known as the father of the lottery, argues that Bredesen has no right to pad his own programs with money from a program that he was so adamantly against. Bredesen himself had suggested legislation wait another year before awarding the scholarships to ensure adequate funding and now wants to divert monies promised to college students to other programs.
While I am a major supporter of all aspects of education, I am unwaveringly against this diversion of excess funds based on the premises on which the state lottery was approved.
According to an article from The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal online (http://www.dnj.com) by Mark Lewis, the Fall of 2004 met the largest freshman class in the history of Tennessee public higher education with 31,207 new students, an almost 7 percent enrollment increase in first-time freshmen from the Fall of 2003. The University of Tennessee alone has 4,936 students aided by lottery-funded scholarships and has had to postpone the closing of several dormitories in need of repair to make room for all these new students. Enrollment is expected to keep increasing at a steady rate due to the availability of funds. Chancellor Loren Crabtree has said that enrollment for the fall of 2005-2006 year has already surpassed that of the fall of 2004-2005, and applications are still coming in.
While the increase in monies available to students has improved the enrollment numbers at most universities in the state, here in Knoxville the yearly increase in tuition is making an education harder and harder to afford.
Charles Manning, chancellor of the Board of Regents, has all but guaranteed that tuition will go up next year, and continue to go up every year following until adequate funding is available. The idea that college tuition will continue to go up and scholarship funding will stay static doesn’t make sense. With each increase in the cost of tuition, lottery scholarships are becoming less and less valuable.
According to the UT Web site tuition and fees for the 2004-2005 school equal $4,748; that’s $2,374 per semester. My lottery scholarship is currently covering 84 percent of the cost of tuition and fees per semester, leaving me to pay $379.84 out of pocket. For argument’s sake, let’s say that fees increase 8 percent this year (only 0.1 percent more than last year), raising the cost of tuition and fees to $2,563.92 per semester. With this increase, my lottery scholarship would cover 78 percent of the cost of tuition and fees, costing me (the student) $564.06 per semester, an almost 50 percent increase in my out-of-pocket expenses. If tuition continues to increase at the same percentage each year, which is highly unlikely, the cost of tuition and fees, by my junior year, will be $2,769.03 and by my senior year, $2,990.55. That would make the out-of-pocket expense $986.88 my senior year, increasing my out-of-pocket expenses by almost 160 percent by the time I finish my undergraduate degree. Out-of-pocket expenses will be much greater than that if the percent increase of tuition increases each year.
Where does Governor Bredesen think that my fellow students and I are going to be able to find this money?
Because lottery scholarships cannot be increased at the same rate as tuition costs, excess money should be given to the lottery scholarships and not be diverted to the pre-K program. I understand the desire to motivate children to find fun in learning at an earlier age and, ultimately, set them up for success later in life. However, I don’t feel that it’s logical to assume that just because a child attends such a program, that they will be deadlocked for success. There are many students who never attended a pre-K program and I use myself as one example. I still managed to graduate high school in the top 10 percent of my class with a 3.89 GPA. I finished my first semester at UT magna cum laude with a 3.77 GPA and 27 college hours under my belt. I am currently receiving the highest aid offered by the Tennessee’s HOPE Lottery Scholarship. I attended no pre-K program, and feel I can still consider myself successful in life thus far.
While the education of our following generations is important and pre-K programs will be beneficial, perhaps they shouldn’t be discussed until funds are available in excess of those needed to increase scholarships at a rate that will keep up with the anticipated college tuition increases. The lottery was approved by Tennessee with the understanding that it would subsidize higher education.
If the excess in funds is large enough to fund pre-K programs and increase scholarships, then perhaps we should start allowing older, qualified students to receive the lottery scholarship as well as increase already existing ones. The lottery was approved based on the understanding that its funds would go to support higher education first and foremost.
It is a nice thought for the state to be able to provide a free education to students of all ages, but a free education for toddlers shouldn’t come at the expense of college students, to whom the money has already been promised. The issue isn’t really one of where the money would be better suited — the type of education funded by the lottery; it is an issue of breaking a promise to the voter. This issue was enthusiastically supported by the citizens of Tennessee with the understanding that it was to make college education more financially accessible to deserving high school students. While the lottery may be the area with the biggest excess of funds right now, there must be other areas where the money can come from to fund pre-K programs.
The lottery has been extremely beneficial to many students. The rise in enrollment has been beneficial to colleges as well. Despite the minor strains in available space and teachers, overcrowding of universities is not a bad problem to have, especially when the overcrowding includes a class of freshman with the highest academic qualifications in the history of most Tennessee universities. Keeping the best students from leaving the state of Tennessee to get their higher education in other states was one of the primary goals of the HOPE Scholarship program, and it appears that it is accomplishing that goal.
Keeping these students in Tennessee, increasing the likelihood that they will stay in Tennessee to make their homes, in the long term will benefit all education programs in Tennessee, including pre-K programs.
— Abigail Taylor is an undecided freshman. She can be reached at ataylo30@utk.edu.