TICUA Policy Update

March 4, 2005

Lottery Oversight to Meet

The Tennessee General Assembly’s Lottery Oversight Committee will meet on Monday, March 7, 2005 to consider over 50 bills that have been filed which affect the scholarship program and gaming management.  The meeting is slated to last for 3 hours but it is unlikely that the committee will complete its business.  All bills introduced related to the lottery go through this committee before moving on to through the standard committee structure.

Meanwhile, the debate continues over defining the term “excess.”  Governor Phil Bredesen is committed to providing at least $25 million from this year’s lottery funds to expand his pre-K reading initiative.  Whereas some legislators want to expand the scholarship program others believe no program expansions should take place until the lottery scholarship programs are fully implemented.

Tennessee’s higher education community is in agreement that the purchasing value of the scholarships should be protected in the years to come.  This would require the ability to expand the dollar value over time.

TSAC Executive Committee to Begin Resume Review

The Executive Committee of the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation will meet to begin review of potential candidates for the Executive Director position.  Michael Roberts resigned as Executive Director last fall after a brief tenure in the post.   Dr. Richard Rhoda has served as the interim Executive Director.  It is the goal of the TSAC Board to have a replacement named by the end of spring.

Pressnell Conducts Seminar in Bulgaria

TICUA President Dr. Claude Pressnell just returned from a brief trip to Sofia, Bulgaria.  Pressnell conducted a four day multi-national conference on higher education at the invitation of the US Embassies in Hungary and Bulgaria.  The meeting focused on education reforms as outlined in the 1999 Bologna Declaration for the European Union.  This invitation-only conference was provided for the Eastern European Balkan countries.

This past summer Pressnell hosted Dr. Edmond Beqiri, the Dean of the School of Business from the University of Prishtina in Kosovo.  During Beqiri’s time in Tennessee he visited numerous TICUA member campuses exploring the possibility of creating student/faculty exchange partnerships.

Perkins Loan in Grave Danger

The House and Senate Budget Committees will be writing the congressional budget plan the week of March 7. They are seriously considering some of the student aid proposals in the president's budget to help pay down the deficit. If the president's plan is followed, the education committees will have to provide the most savings of any other committee, and the only place to make those cuts is in student aid.

Right now the budget committees are thinking of cutting student aid by $7 billion to help pay for deficit reduction. Some in Congress would not cut subsidies to the lenders as much as the president proposes, which puts dismantling the Perkins Loan program, and recalling the $6.3 billion in federal funds in institutions' revolving funds at the top of the options list for helping pay down the deficit.

Please contact Budget Committee members Senator Lamar Alexander and Representatives Jim Cooper and Harold Ford, Jr. THIS NEXT WEEK and tell them not to dismantle the Perkins Loan program, and to take the least amount of savings from the education committees as possible.