TICUA Policy Update

March 31, 2005

Lottery Oversight Committee Takes Action

The Joint Lottery Oversight Committee met on Wednesday evening March 30, 2005 to review 53 bills related to the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship Program.  The committee moved quickly through the bills which will allow them to be heard in both houses’ standing committees.

Generally, the bills sent on with recommendation seek to increase the dollar amounts of all lottery scholarship programs; make allowances for a greater number of students to receive the scholarships by relaxing the out-of-state transfer requirements, giving more time after high school graduation to enroll in college, and making broader provisions for scholarship renewal.   The Committee agreed to collapse many of the individual bill recommendations into one omnibus bill (SB59/HB353).

Many of the changes to the scholarship programs will be worked out in the standing committee work during the weeks to come.

Emails Make a Difference!

Collectively, over 700 emails have been sent to Legislators and Governor Bredesen thanking them for the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship programs and the Tennessee Student Assistance Program.  Legislators have commented about the notes and are encouraged by the thankfulness of our students.

Lee University has launched a program to mobilize parents to utilize the TICUA Action Center as well.  Numerous emails have been sent giving legislators the parent’s perspective on how these grants and scholarships make a difference to their families.

Keep the emails coming!

http://capwiz.com/ticua

Pre-K Program Moves in the House

Governor Bredesen’s Pre-Kindergarten program was approved by the House Education Committee.  The program will provide voluntary programs for Tennessee four year olds in order to prepare them to enter kindergarten.  The concept has been piloted for the past seven years and has received high marks from various assessment groups.  The program is designed to provide all day instruction for the 180 day school year for participating pre-kindergarten students.  The cost to expand the program in FY2006 is $25 million which will come from the excess lottery revenues.  Once fully implemented it is estimated that the program may carry an annual cost of $275 million.  

After lengthy questions, the program was approved with a party line vote.  The bill will now move on to the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee.  The Senate Education Committee rolled the bill for three weeks.   

Perkins Loan Issue Still Important

TICUA has posted institution level data related to the Federal Perkins Loan program.  The data show each participating institution's Federal Contribution to the loan program that may need to be refunded to the Federal Government if it phased out.  President Bush recently announced that a part of his plan to fund the long-term increase in the Pell

Grant was to eliminate the Perkins program and recall the Federal Contributions from the campuses. The impact on TICUA members will exceed $70 million; per institution impacts range from under $1million to over $12 million.

This past week NAICU sent a letter to each participating campus to urge college and university Presidents to write their congressional delegates about the importance of the low-interest loan program.  Hill staffers said that they were more interested in institution level responses than from associations.  So please, look for the NAICU letter and take action!

Perkins Loan data:  http://www.sitemason.com/files/b/bN6HOo/TN%20Perkins%20data.xls