Cohen Statement on President Obama's Visit to Tennessee
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) supports President Obama’s intention to expand access to higher education, which the President plans to announce in Tennessee today. Congressman Cohen is pleased that many aspects of the President’s plan are similar to the Tennessee HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program that Congressman Cohen, as a Tennessee State Senator, led the 2-decade fight to create. The Tennessee Education Lottery has provided more than $3 billion in education funding to Tennessee students. However, Congressman Cohen has expressed his concerns that the President will today highlight the new Tennessee Promise program. Footage of Congressman Cohen speaking on the House floor this morning about the President’s visit to Tennessee is available here, and columns penned by the Congressman about the flaws of Tennessee Promise are available here and here.
"I share the President's goals of making college more affordable and ensuring educational opportunity for all. However, his plan has more in common with the HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program that I worked to create than the Tennessee Promise program," said Congressman Cohen. "Tennessee Promise is not what it appears to be. It is a last-dollar scholarship without standards to attain assistance and without reasonable standards to maintain that assistance. In taking its funding from the HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program, Tennessee Promise takes money from achieving low-and middle-income students and directs it to more affluent, non-achieving students.”
By requiring students to maintain a reasonable minimum grade point average (GPA) and achieve high standards in order to continue to receive assistance, President Obama's community college proposal is more closely aligned with the HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program that rewards high school performance than the Tennessee Promise program which is a “last dollar” scholarship program. The bulk of the education dollars that Tennessee Promise depends upon are federally funded Pell Grants and HOPE Education Lottery scholarships.
However, because of overly cautious estimates when the enacting legislation was passed and since, the Tennessee General Assembly has never fully funded the HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program but has, instead, allowed excess funds to sit idle in the state’s coffers, encouraging politicians to raid the HOPE scholarship funds for purposes other than intended and understood by Tennessee citizens. The current and largest, most damaging raid on lottery funds is the Tennessee Promise program, which is fully funded by lottery revenue. The excess funds could have been used to increase the means-tested portion of the HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program, making the funds more effective in helping those who need it most.
"By highlighting the Tennessee Promise, an unproven $14 million “last dollar” scholarship program rather than the proven $250 million Tennessee Education HOPE Lottery program, the President is looking at the hole and not the donut," said Congressman Cohen.