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Alternet reports on eduction reform in Tennessee.
The Tennessee House and Senate have approved a measure that allows for two free years of tuition at community colleges or technical schools for all the state's high school graduates. The proposal not only has the backing of Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, it was based on his idea.
Moreover, the legislation passed by an overwhelming majority. The state's House of Representatives voted in favor of the legislation with a 87-8 margin.
When the plan, called Tennessee Promise, becomes law, [it] should provide free higher education for about 25,000 students in the state beginning in 2015. It will only benefit incoming freshmen. College sophomores attending two year schools in 2015 will not be able to participate in the plan, but will still be eligible for other state financial aid programs.
The estimated cost of the program is $34 [million] annually. Money will be transferred from the proceeds of the Tennessee Lottery to create an endowment for the program.
A similar proposal in 2007 failed.
In 1960, California was the first state to suspend college tuition. After President Reagan's cuts, the state dropped that program in 1984. Despite that, California's public colleges still have the lowest tuition rates in the country.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Friday April 18 2014, @12:59PM
You should see the crazy-ass stuff he's entangled himself with regarding unionization at a volkswagon plant in the state.
VW has been tight-lipped in public, but it is pretty clear that they want the union because it is the vehicle for implementing a works council [wikipedia.org] which is a system that involves labor in plant managment decisions similar to the principles of W Edward Deming's [hci.com.au] Total Quality Management which has been credited for making the Japanese auto-industry so effective. The plant in Tennessee is one of the few, maybe the only, VW plant without a works council.
Haslam told VW that if the plant unionizes, a $300M incentive offer will be rescinded. [timesfreepress.com] That "statement of fact" (he insists it was not a threat) was part of secret negotiations between the state and VW. But it wasn't a secret from US Senator Bob Corker who told workers voting on unionization that VW would only pick up a new, second manufacturing line at the plant if they rejected the union. [reuters.com]
Haslam has put idelogy so far ahead of anything else in this situation, that he's got no worries of being called a RINO.