Cohen: Any Plan That Cuts HOPE Scholarships is Bad for Students and Wrong for Tennessee

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) released the following statement in response to Governor Bill Haslam’s repeated attempts to push his ill-advised “Tennessee Promise” plan through the General Assembly without allowing adequate time for public consideration and comment:

“When the HOPE Scholarship program was created, it was only after the Tennessee General Assembly heard testimony and recommendations from educators and fiscal experts. Legislators should be very careful with any plan that dismantles one of the most prominent and successful programs that the General Assembly has ever created. Before moving forward, the Governor’s ‘Tennessee Promise’ program needs to go to a study committee that listens to the experts.”

“Since its creation, the HOPE Scholarship’s value has diminished as tuition has increased—and this plan will cut the scholarships even further. All future lottery revenue gains will flow to the Governor’s free-tuition, no-standards community college program, and the HOPE Scholarship will fade into irrelevance when it should be growing to match the rising costs of attending college. It is wrong to cut lottery scholarships to create a massive new government program, and it is wrong to siphon $300 million meant to strengthen HOPE Scholarships for the governor’s pet project. Doing so will sentence HOPE Scholarships to a slow and certain death.”

“Any changes to HOPE Scholarship should be based on expert recommendations and evidence—not politics. When the experts have weighed in, the General Assembly will find that the best use of these funds would be to strengthen HOPE by extending more benefits to middle-class and low-income students and keeping them here in Tennessee.”