NASHVILLE – A House panel on Tuesday approved Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to break up the Tennessee Board of Regents system despite criticism by former TBR Chancellor John Morgan who warned it threatens the balance between TBR and the University of Tennessee systems.
Haslam has proposed splitting off the six TBR universities from the Regents and providing them with self-governing boards and oversight by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
The TBR would retain the community colleges and technical schools it currently oversees and Haslam has touted his plan as benefiting the two-year institutions and aiding in his Drive to 55 program to raise the number of Tennesseans with post-high school degrees to 55 percent by 2025.
Morgan quit his chancellor’s post on Jan. 31 in protest over the plan, accelerating by a year his intent to retire in 2017.
He told House Education Administration and Planning Committee members that Haslam’s plan create a system that is “less accountable, less efficient and less effective.”