University of Tennessee to be free for lower-income students

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 11:52 am CDT, Friday, March 15, 2019



Photo: Calvin Mattheis, AP

FILE- In this Aug. 2, 2018, file photo Randy Boyd speaks with tears in his eyes at his watch party at Jackson Terminal in Knoxville, Tenn. The University of Tennessee will soon begin providing free tuition to Tennessee residents starting in the fall of 2020. Interim university President Randy Boyd announced Thursday, March 14, 2019, that tuition and fees will be covered for students with household incomes under $50,000 a year. (Calvin Mattheis/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP, File)


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The University of Tennessee will begin providing free tuition to Tennessee residents starting in the fall of 2020.

Interim university President Randy Boyd announced Thursday that tuition and fees will be covered for students with household incomes of less than $50,000 a year.

Boyd said the university isn't "just for the wealthy or the elite. This is a school for everyone."

. . .

Tennessee five years ago became the first state to make community college tuition-free for new high school graduates. It later expanded that program to allow older adults. State commitments have enabled 46 percent of UT students to graduate without debt.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/University-of-Tennessee-to-offer-some-students-13690751.php

[pecosbob]

1. Good for you...now raise the ceiling to 100K.

[exboyfil]

4. Every situation is different

but I was able to fully pay for my two daughters education on about that income. They graduated without debt. One from our land grant university in Mechanical Engineering and the other with a BS Nursing from a hospital affiliated nursing school.

I actually spent more on the nursing daughter even though she lived at home. Both did virtually all of their first two years by community college.

[pecosbob]

8. A standard from a state university should reflect local cost of living, of course

[CreekDog]

17. 31k per year or 248k total for 2 students (4 years each)

certainly you didn't do that on 100k/year and come out with no debt.

[virgogal]

6. I wish they had a sliding scale.

My late mother just missed out,by about $1500.00 per year, for free adult day care.

As a result we could only do it 2 days a week instead of the 4 or 5 that she really needed because we had to pay full price.

[Igel]

9. Money and funding.

When they give free tuition (that's not just repacking federal grants and loans) they're drawing from two sources.

Higher fees paid by those making more money.

Endowments.

I'll treat those as different things.

If they raise the fees too much, there's backlash from those who realize that to send their kids to college they're also sending somebody else's kids to college. Under a high-fee/high-financial aid model, a lot of the loan debt incurred by students is loans to pay for other students. It's a zero sum game. (It doesn't help that much of the loans debt is there for nice-to-haves that weren't around 30 years ago.)

Endowments come from those large donations we so disparage. And colleges tend to like endowments because the income from those endowments is ongoing. If they eat through the endowments, they have no savings. And then like anybody else with no savings, they live from "paycheck to paycheck." If we don't like it for us, why should we like it for others?

Moreover, the endowments are there for more than free tuition. You don't want to use all the income from the endowments because then if there's a crunch you have to take away free tuition. Once you give something for free, it's viewed as owed in some sense. To take it away is to take something away. (There's a lot of research on attitudes. If you give somebody $10 and then propose a test or some circumstance under which they can lose the $10, the person gets upset if the money's taken away. If you offer somebody $10 if they pass the test, they're happy if they get the money. In both scenarios, at the end if the person passes the test they have $10 and if they don't pass they don't. All that matters is the how they reach identical end states, but the how really matters. It's why people could be opposed to Obamacare until they had it, then really get pissed off when it might be taken away. It's more than "you don't miss what you don't have." You don't resent losing something that you don't possess, true, but you get really pissed off when you lose something you feel is yours by right. Even if you haven't gotten it yet but treat a promise as the thing.)

It's the same with a lot of the nice-to-haves. In the grad dorm we had steak-and-lobster nights. The food was pretty good. There was a wellness center and student gym on campus. All kinds of services. For a price, built into your tuition and fees. Many hundreds of dollars per semester for things we did without when I was an undergrad. But take them away? Not going to happen for many; they'd strenuously object. And making them optional to make those who actually used them pay the full cost would be prohibitive. So they counted on everybody paying so that 20% of the student body got what they wanted.

Baby steps, at best for financial aid. And uncoerced baby steps are best.

[oldsoftie]

11. You make many good points. And that "owed" attitude applies to many other things too.

I could see people protesting losing that "free" gym even if they never USED it!

But i do think some of these colleges with ENORMOUS endowments saved up could provide SOME free/reduced tuition without endangering their funds. Just dont announce how many you're giving out, so if there was a need to reduce the number, it stays "in house"

[frazzled]

14. Guidelines for university endowments are generally restricted to 5%

spend downs annually. (I think Harvard spends only about 2% annually, which is a lot because they have billions, but they could do far more.).

I’m sure the University of Tennessee knows pretty well the approximate number of students in that income level who qualify each year for admission to their programs. And it knows that it fits within their spending guidelines. But you do have to ask how it will affect admission policies, and whether they will just increase the number of out-of-state applicants. Or whether families in, say, the 50-110K bracket will be paying more. There are always unknown trade-offs and consequences.

But the “taking away” part reminded me of my son’s situation a decade and a half ago (not really related, but I thought of it anyway.) He had already been accepted to a university of his choice and offered a financial aid package when he was informed he had received a National Merit Scholarship. Now, that sounds like a great thing—the top one half of one percent of all students in the nation taking the SAT. But it was worth only $2,000. A drop in the bucket, we thought, but every bit counts. But the kicker was that the university immediately reduced his financial aid packet by the same $2,000! We sighed, but our son got steaming mad and wrote to the school in a string of indignant emails and conversations. He didn’t win. One hand giveth and the other taketh away.

[BluegrassDem]

16. $100K/yr is not poverty level in Tennessee

As a matter of fact, you're definitely middle class. The school shouldn't be expected to provide free tuition for households pulling down that kind of income in Tennessee.

[CreekDog]

18. it doesn't mean you can afford 31k per year though

[oldsoftie]

2. Some of these "elite (joke)" Ivy League schools could take a hint. With their Billion $ endowments.

University name is merely a status symbol for the parents more than the kids. Most people who hire dont look at WHERE you went. Out of the Fortune 500 CEOs, U of Wisconsin has the most.
Save your money and go local

[CTyankee]

23. But Ivy League schools like Yale have huge endowments and if you measure up to their standards

you can practically go for free. And they love and want diversity.

[blackdove78]

24. Same with Georgetown

Once you're accepted they'll bend over backwards to make sure you can attend.

[CTyankee]

29. And the contacts you make last a lifetime. That's the other plus.

So you have a built in advantage there as well.

But my experience is living proof that in some cases this doesn't happen. My first husband always took advantage over his Harvard undergrad degree and got into grad school at Yale for it but went only one year and left (I am certain he was not invited back). He failed at everything, most spectacularly at marriage. I divorced him when I couldn't take it any more. I asked only for child support til my kids were 18. He wouldn't have done that if he hadn't been married to his erstwhile pre-divorce girlfriend. I see him only at Thanksgiving and Xmas at our daughter's house. Last Thanksgiving he took exception to the preface of my book where I thanked so many people who had contributed to it. He said he wondered why I hadn't thanked HIM who "helped me find my voice." I just got livid and went ballistic, telling him "you did no such thing! I was perfectly capable of finding my own voice!"

And, since I live in New Haven, don't even ask about having to hear him rant about Harvard around the time of the big Harvard-Yale game...

[Miguel Smith]

3. Good

[exboyfil]

5. I hope they extend the deal to Tennessee Tech

which is an excellent smaller school with a great engineering program.

[Grins]

7. Are you kidding me? "Soshilism!!!!!!" NM

[pecosbob]

10. I think this is a good link

https://collegepromise.org/the-promise/

[ancianita]

12. Now that right there is a model of commitment to human development.

[UpInArms]

13. Good for them

Missouri needs to do that ...

It’s crazy how expensive tuition and classes have become

[Progressive Jones]

26. Hopefully, TN will serve as an example and inspiration for other States. nt

[Hortensis]

15. Fabulous! And fabulous for community college also.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. I keep misreading this thread title as "University of Tennessee to be free OF lower-income students"

Which would be true for so many schools

[Cold War Spook]

20. I like the idea of free college for those that graduate.

How about low interest rates for students under a certain income level and the loan is forgiven if they graduate in 6 years or less. I wonder if colleges were free, how many of those students would go to college just for the free ride for 6 years. I didn't really want to go to college but I had a free ride, all it cost me was 4 years in the army.

[Demonaut]

21. socialism at its finest

[GulfCoast66]

25. Love the program. Not remotely socialism.

No one historically, except modern republicans and some one the left who want to be considered socialist cause it’s cool, would call this socialism. Real socilaist would not.

But republicans think anything that the government does to help its citizens is socialism. I refuse to help them spread that lie.

[Progressive Jones]

27. "Anti-Socialism" has become just another 2 word political slogan on the right.

Half of those folks wouldn't know how to define socialism.

[Sherman A1]

22. Superb

I hope that all state schools will follow this lead.

[FM123]

28. Wonderful!

I would love to see this expand to other colleges in other states.