Representative Ed Butler, R-Rickman, is proposing a change to help keep high schoolers enrolled in technical college courses on track after they graduate.Butler presented a bill to the House Higher Education Subcommittee Monday afternoon that would give students taking dual enrollment in high school priority if there’s a waitlist for slots at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) they want to attend after graduation.Representative Butler told the subcommittee that he got the idea for this bill from his daughter.

Representative Ed Butler, R-Rickman, says it was something personal that led him to file House Bill 1803.Butler says his daughter decided to attend higher education classes in the summer and he realized the Tennessee Promise scholarship wouldn’t be available to students who make a similar choice to attend classes during those months.