February 4, 2005

Bredesen's Pre-K Plan Undermines Goal of Lottery

As much as it pains me to say it, state Sen. Steve Cohen, the liberal state senator from Memphis, is right about this. Gov. Phil Bredesen's plan to divert $25 million in "excess" state lottery revenue to a new pre-K program instead of using it to increase the lottery-funded partial scholarships to something approaching full scholarships, violates the spirit of the lottery amendment voters passed in 2002.

In 2002 when the lottery amendment was on the ballot, voters believed they were voting on a lottery that would raise funds to provide scholarships that would equal full tuition to a Tennessee public university, and only then would excess lottery revenue be available for othe education-related spending. But the Bredesen administration, by trying to fund its new pre-K program with lottery funds, is effectively seeking to cap scholarships at $3,000. As tuition costs rise in the years ahead, that would make the lottery scholarships less and less valuable, and undermine the very purpose for which they were created: helping more Tennessee kids go to college.

The fiscally smart thing to do would be to simply use lottery funds to pay for scholarships, and hold any excess in a reserve account for four or five years, so that the lottery can be assured of meeting any increased demand for scholarships in the years ahead. Bredesen's alternate approach - spend it all now - risks the lottery being unable to pay for all the scholarships it may be required to fund in the future, leaving taxpayers at risk of a tax increase to fund the difference. That's because the legislature, in its wisdom, rejected including in the lottery scholarship legislation any language saying, in effect, that the lottery would fund scholarships until the money was gone, on a first-come first-served basis.

Perhaps Sen. Cohen, as he pushes legislation to increase lottery scholarships to $4,000, now will also see the wisdom of including such language, and also language create a lottery revenue reserve fund. It would be the fiscally conservative thing to do - and protect the lottery scholarship program from careless liberal big-spenders like Bredesen at the same time.

Bredesen's plan to divert $25 million in lottery funds to his pet pre-K program before fully funding university scholarships makes even less sense when you recall that, two months ago, Bredesen was calling for the government to spend more lottery money on ... scholarships - by opening up the program for non-traditional students.

Students who take time off between high school and college or people who go after their degrees later in life should be able to receive lottery-funded scholarships, Gov. Phil Bredesen said yesterday. The system really works against nontraditional students," Bredesen said during a higher education budget hearing. "At some point, the whole issue needs to be reopened."

While adult students can get a $1,250 annual grant to attend a Tennessee Technology Center, they can't get a HOPE Scholarship of $1,500 to $4,000 to enroll at an accredited community college or university in the state. Technology centers offer work force training but not college degrees.

Bredesen said after the budget hearing that he was not planning to push his idea in the next legislative session. But he said the state should "explore how you take a little more responsibility" for students who don't fit the traditional mold.

The danger is that Bredesen will get his way on the pre-K funding, Cohen will get his way on raising the size of the scholarships, and the notion of expanding the scholarship program to non-traditional students will also gain ground - exhausting the lottery revenue while comitting the state of Tennessee to fully funding all of those things even if it means raising taxes.