Higher Education Bill Ready For Governor’s Signature

Lawmakers passed Governor Phil Bredesen’s bill to change the course of higher education Thursday night. Only two legislators voted against the measure.

House sponsor Mark Maddox, who was a critic of the governor’s K-12 bill last week, says the “Complete College” bill got his attention.

“When this bill was filed I thought it could be possibly one of the best pieces of legislation I had seen in a long career. And as we got through the debate, more and more it got to be about institution building. Once we got past that, I think we came out with a good piece of legislation, I think it will improve higher education and set us up for the next four or five years to come.”

Maddox says streamlining the transfer of credits from two-year schools to four-year universities and making colleges more accountable for graduation rates will ultimately boost economic development. He says having more students graduate will improve the chances of getting better jobs in the state.

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Despite the general agreement on the higher education bill, the details kept changing until the last minute.

The bill bogged down for several hours when State Rep. Joe Armstrong of Knoxville added an amendment that would have required colleges to recognize credit hours earned up to twenty years ago. Currently when a student returns to finish a degree, the college recognizes course taken up to ten years previously.

Armstrong finally withdrew the change.

Bits and pieces of the bill were trimmed out Thursday night. Lawmakers dropped a “feasibility study” of residence halls at two-year schools, touched up language about students taking courses at four-year schools and remedial work at two-year schools to protect holders of athletic scholarships, and erased a potential study of adult education.

The legislators first deleted a measure requiring the Comptroller to audit the new provisions of the law. Then they added back a section which said the comptroller, the state’s official auditor, “may” audit the new system for performance and financial soundness.

People familiar with the constitutional duties of the comptroller said the amendment was unnecessary because the legislature cannot stop the comptroller from doing such an audit.

The bill passed the Senate 32-0. It passed the House 93-2 with five representatives absent. Voting against it were Republicans Jon Lundberg and Gerald McCormick.

The two houses agreed on common language about 7:30 p.m. The much amended bill will be sent to the governor. The legislature stayed in special session, aiming to fix any technical details on Monday before formally beginning the regular legislative session.