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Tn Promise nets 135 applications
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CRIPPS

 

Patrick Cripps, DCHS Principal Patrick Cripps told the members of the board of education last week that 135 seniors have signed up for Tennessee Promise, a program that offers students two years of free tuition to a community or technical college.

 

“I am really proud of our seniors. We've got 135 kids signed up out of 195. I'm also really proud of the work Ms. Lori Myrick (the DCHS Guidance Counselor) has done getting kids signed up for it," Cripps said.

 

Cripps also said he was impressed with the level of community involvement in the program. "I want to give a big thank you to our community,” the principal said. “We need mentors to work with the students, and we have close to 25 or 30 members of the community who volunteered. I want to thank them for giving their time, because there are certain requirements students have to meet to get this free money,” he said.

 

A mandatory Tennessee Promise meeting has been rescheduled for Monday, February 2 at 5:30PM.   The meeting will make up for one that was cancelled on Jan. 14 due to inclement weather.  The meeting is mandatory for Tennessee Promise Scholarship candidates, and candidates who have signed up for Tennessee Promise are reminded to file their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms by Feb. 15. "That's the deadline,” Cripps warned. “If you don't have your FAFSA done by Feb. 15 you may miss out on the money. That's a very important date. We had a workshop on Monday and we had someone come out and help with filling out the FAFSA forms. There are workshops set up through the state and if parents have questions they may call the high school and we can link them to another high school if they need help with that," the principal concluded.

 

A total of 56,000 seniors signed up for the Tennessee Promise Initiative before the deadline on Nov. 1, of last year.  

 

Signed into law in May 2014, the Tennessee Promise program offers to pay the first two years of community college or technical college tuition for high school graduates in the state of Tennessee. The program matches participating students with a mentor to help navigate the college admissions process mentor who will assist the student as he or she navigates the college admissions process.

 

It requires participants to maintain a 2.0 GPA and complete eight hours of community service per term enrolled. Tennessee Promise protects taxpayers from being left on the hook for the cost of the program by including language authorizing the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation (TSAC) to make adjustments to award amounts in the unlikely event that revenue from the state lottery reserve fund is insufficient to cover its full cost.

 

It will provide students a last-dollar scholarship, meaning the scholarship will cover tuition and fees not covered by the Pell grant, the HOPE scholarship, or TSAA funds. Students may use the scholarship at any of the state’s 13 community colleges, 27 colleges of applied technology, or other eligible institution offering an associate’s degree program.

 

Meanwhile, the federal government has proposed a program based on the Tennessee initiative.

 

In a statement released by Congressman Diane Black, the representative from Tennessee’s 6th District said she believes that such programs are better left to individual states to manage. “As a first generation college graduate and a former educator, I desire to see every student have an opportunity to pursue higher education,” said Black. “But the President must understand that the solutions we have adopted in our state, like Tennessee Promise, work because they are done the Tennessee way, not the Washington way. Tennessee Promise is a state-led initiative designed to meet the unique needs of our students. The program is paid for by a lottery reserve fund that will allow us to continue balancing our budget each year and will not result in added costs to hardworking taxpayers. By contrast, the President’s proposal appears to be a top-down federal program that will ask already cash-strapped states to help pick up the tab.”

 

Black added, “While the White House says that three quarters of the program would be paid for with federal funding, I have yet to hear what offsets, if any, would be proposed to ensure Americans are not saddled with greater debt and deficits as a result. Will the president offer proposals to make his plan budget-neutral, or will he attempt to charge it to the credit card? Ultimately, any efforts to reboot Tennessee Promise as a one-size-fits-all nationwide approach will be met with heavy skepticism from Congress.”