The Tennessee House Higher Education Subcommittee ended its work this year by moving several pieces of legislation forward to support students working towards a higher education degree.
Portland Representative William Lamberth’s legislation was among them. Lamberth is proposing extending the HOPE Scholarship to students who receive their undergraduate degree early and want to pursue a graduate degree.
The Tennessee HOPE Scholarship is a lottery-funded scholarship that provides up to $2,250 a semester for fulltime enrolled freshman and sophomores of four-year institutions and then increases to $2,850 for juniors and seniors. It provides up to $1,600 for two-year institutions. Currently the scholarship is not available to students pursuing a master’s or other graduate degree.
The scholarship expires five years after a student’s initial college enrollment and students taking advantage of the legislation’s expanded scholarship would not be able to receive assistance beyond that date.
Representative Lamberth’s legislation passed the Senate Education Committee last month.
Since then, he’s filed an amendment to ensure graduate students who drop below the needed hours to be considered a full-time student if they withdraw from a course, don’t need to repay the scholarship.
“If you withdraw from a class and it puts you down below the hourly requirements, then you do not lose your HOPE Scholarship allotment. This would just line up the line up the graduate school with the undergraduate with the exact same rules,” said Representative Lamberth.
Tennessee Promise Expansion
Subcommittee members also advanced Knoxville Representative Justin Lafferty’s legislation to expand the timeframe students can be eligible for the Tennessee Promise.
The Tennessee Promise provides Tennessee high school graduates the opportunity to attend a community or technical college free of tuition and mandatory fees.
Currently, to be eligible, high school students must be enrolled into the fall term of a community or technical college following their graduation. Lafferty’s bill would allow students to wait up to 16 months after graduation before enrolling and still be able to earn the scholarship.
“This is going to help some folks that are out there in that No Man’s Land until we get to the point where we just start opening up college to everyone at any time. This is gonna help close some gaps,” said Representative Lafferty.
The legislation passed despite receiving opposition from various members of the committee and organization tnAchieves at a hearing last month.
Sophomore Dual Enrollment
Subcommittee members also approved Culleoka Representative Scott Cepicky’s proposal to expand high school dual enrollment grants to include sophomore students.
Currently, the Tennessee Lottery-funded dual enrollment grants only enable juniors and seniors to take college classes while still in high school.
“All it does is expand the eligibility requirements for receipt of dual enrollment grants to high school sophomores. That’s all the bill does,” said Representative Cepicky.
This legislation would follow a pilot program in place at Motlow State Community College.
All three bills now move to the Education Administration Committee.
