Hope Scholarship Changes Worry Small Schools
A proposed reduction in some state-funded college scholarships worries students and administrators at some of Tennessee’s small private institutions.
A task force has recommended to legislators that HOPE scholarships awarded to students who don’t meet both the high school grade point and college entrance exam benchmarks should be cut in half. Such a move would save an estimated $13 million in the first year and $17 million in subsequent years.
At Carson-Newman College in Jeffersonville, as many as 130 students could find their scholarships reduced by 50 percent if the legislature adopts the recommendation, according to The Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/v1ByRb ). Student enrollment this semester is 1,970.
Claude Presnell, president of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, said many smaller schools tend to attract first-generation students from low-income families.
