College Cost Shifts More to Tennessee Students

State higher education officials says they’ll try to keep tuition increases to around 5% in the wake of requested budget cuts.

Tennessee Higher Education Commission executive director Richard
Rhoda told Governor Phil Bredesen at budget hearings today that the state is entering “new territory” in terms of who carries most of the burden for paying for a college education.

“The funding relationship between the state and students has hit a tipping point, and it’s not just Tennessee. It’s nationally. But the state is no longer the provider of the majority of institutions operating funds. So, it’s a significant departure in public policy, and we need to, we are thinking through all the ramifications.”

Rhoda says the swing to students carrying more of the cost comes as more Tennesseans are enrolling college.

Along with planning for a 6% state budget cut, college officials are
trying to prepare for the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars
when federal stimulus money runs out in 2012.

University of Tennessee President Jan Simek says as colleges restructure to handle the cuts, students will have less flexibility and be in larger classes

“That means the choices available to them will simply have to be fewer. They will have to take courses at particular times, where they may have had several options in the past where they could go do something else.”

Stimulus money has helped schools stave off dramatic cuts so far. Governor Bredesen asked for assurances that schools will have realistic plans in place for when that money is gone.

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