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U. Tennessee Announces Free Tuition for Low Income Students

U. Tennessee Announces Free Tuition for Low Income Students

“This isn’t a school just for the wealthy or the elite”

Free tuition is a misleading term. Shouldn’t it really be called taxpayer-funded tuition?

The Hill reports:

University of Tennessee announces free tuition for lower-income students

The University of Tennessee will begin providing free tuition to students from low-income families, the school’s president announced Thursday.

The Associated Press reported the university’s interim president Randy Boyd as saying that the policy will apply to students who are in-state and whose families make a combined annual income of less than $50,000 per year.

“This isn’t a school just for the wealthy or the elite,” Boyd said. “This is a school for everyone.”

The University of Tennessee did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill.

The program, dubbed UT Promise, would apply to three of the school’s campuses in the state, in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Martin, but will not apply to the state’s medical school in Memphis, according to CBS affiliate WREG.

“It is critically important that we take a lead role in ensuring students can achieve their dream of obtaining an undergraduate college degree,” Boyd added, according to WREG. “It is our mission and responsibility to do everything we can to ease the financial burden for our middle- and working-class families, and UT Promise is an ideal conduit to achieve that.”

Students who qualify for the program, according to the AP, will be matched with mentors for volunteer service and will be required to complete service learning requirements in order to continue receiving the benefits.

The plan applies to future students as well as those who have already applied for school in 2020.

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Comments

Well, items other than tax can pay for free tuition.

In the state of Florida, the bright futures scholarship are provided to all based on merit, not income, and are based on lottery revenues.

Free? Why?
Why not make tuition low cost based on financial need, but allow students to WORK off debt. 20 hours labor around the campus will not hurt. Laboring will actually inspire them to help keep the campus well maintained – they won’t want others to screw up their labors. Further, people appreciate that which they must work for.

    healthguyfsu in reply to cjrian. | March 17, 2019 at 5:42 pm

    I agree. However, they are required to complete service learning…which is basically volunteer work that the school or the community would have to pay for otherwise. It’s not much different than workstudy, but free sounds more attractive.

Tennessee has the HOPE program funded by a lottery for all qualified students. Do the low income students also get money from HOPE?