While higher education officials are reeling from new state mandates and budget cutbacks, Tennessee’s governor and lawmakers get to enjoy the state’s newfound reputation as a leader in education reform.
“It was extraordinary, the reform efforts that have been made for higher education (in Tennessee),” Stan Jones, president of Complete College America, said Tuesday. The special legislative session’s bill on higher education “was an extraordinary display of bipartisanship.”
Complete College America is a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit that wants to increase the number of Americans with a college degree.
During a conference call Tuesday with leaders from more than a dozen states and five major national education philanthropies, organization officials announced a consortium of 17 states, including Tennessee, that will focus on developing state policies to increase graduation rates.
“For 60 years, the country has been focused on access and opportunity in college,” Mr. Jones said. “We have spent billions of dollars in access programs. Today, 75 percent of high school graduates go onto college. Unfortunately, these are unfulfilled promises and broken dreams.”
As commission of higher education in Indiana for 12 years, Mr. Jones was the primary architect of that state’s new community college system.
Mr. Jones, whose efforts are backed financially by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education, played a significant role behind the scenes in crafting Tennessee’s higher education reform agenda.
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By aligning with Complete College America, Tennessee secures buy-in from wealthy nonprofit organizations and will have experts consulting with them as it works to implement change in the University of Tennessee and Tennessee Board of Regents systems.
PARTNERING STATES* Tennessee* Connecticut* Massachusetts* South Dakota* Hawaii* Nevada* Idaho* Ohio* Utah* Illinois* Oregon* Vermont* Indiana* Pennsylvania* West Virginia* Maryland* Rhode IslandSource: Complete College AmericaBY THE NUMBERS* By the end of the decade, more than 60 percent of jobs will require a college education* 31 percent of adults in Tennessee, ages 25-34, have college degrees* 60 percent of students in Tennessee graduate from private four-year colleges in six years* 46 percent of students in Tennessee graduate from public four-year colleges in six years* 11 percent of students in Tennessee graduate from public two-year colleges in three yearsSource: Complete College America.
Tennessee was among a handful of states awarded a Lumina Foundation Making Opportunity Affordable grant earlier this year.
“Our participation with this is not linked to the hope that money will flow; it is to have communication with other states,” Gov. Phil Bredesen said Tuesday. “If there are areas that need attention, we will go to some of these major foundations and, if it makes sense with their goals, we will address them.”
The partnership also may put Tennessee in line for competitive federal dollars, similar to Race to the Top funds, that could be made available if legislation pending in Congress creates savings by eliminating a major federal student loan program.
States such as Tennessee, which have made significant progress in improving graduation rates, will be poised to get the biggest chunks of money, officials said.
“Clearly Tennessee is farther ahead than any of the other states,” Mr. Jones said. “Tennessee’s big challenge now is to implement the legislation. I think they took a huge step out into the public spotlight. A lot of people know what Tennessee has done and are really impressed with the leadership.”
Tennessee may be the poster child for policy innovation, but the state’s educational attainment levels have nowhere to go but up.
Only 31 percent of Tennesseans between the ages of 25 and 34 have college degrees. Of every 100 ninth graders, 42 enter college the fall after graduating from high school. Eight graduate with a bachelor’s degree in four years and four graduate with an associate’s degree in three years, Complete College America documents show.
As part of the state’s reforms, higher education leaders are tasked with eliminating remedial education at four-year schools, increasing the number of students who transfer from community colleges to universities and improving graduation rates, but college officials shouldn’t say budget cutting and layoffs make reforms impossible, Gov. Bredesen said.
“The question is: Are you going to sit there in a difficult time and bemoan your fate or try to move things forward?” he said. “There is this notion that government is about spending money. I am a Democrat. I believe in spending money. But when you don’t have the money you tackle it in some other way.”