Seventeen Democratic state senators want South Carolina to spend $76 million a year on a proposed S.C. Promise Scholarship, which would pay for students' tuition and fees at the state's 16 technical colleges.(Photo: Greenville Tech)Buy Photo
At Greenville Technical College, it's hard to find a student who's not in favor of a proposal to make two-year college tuition-free in South Carolina.
"I think it would be great," said Louis Reyes, 19, walking between classes on a recent Thursday.
"It would help a lot of people who are struggling and have bills to pay," added Reyes, a second-semester finance major. "It would benefit a lot of people."
Seventeen Democratic state senators want South Carolina to spend $76 million a year on a proposed S.C. Promise Scholarship, which would pay for students' tuition and fees at the state's 16 technical colleges.
Low-income students, meanwhile, could qualify also for a $1,500 supplement for books, transportation costs and child care, among other expenses.
"We want to make sure everybody's got an opportunity to get something beyond a high school education," said state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, co-sponsor of the scholarship plan. "Statistically, if you have more than a high school education, you'll double your earnings over a lifetime."
The scholarship also is aimed at supplying South Carolina's employers with the workforce it needs.
"The business community has spoken loud and clear that we've got to develop a more highly skilled workforce so that we can make South Carolina competitive for the 21st century economy," said Sen. Karl Allen, D-Greenville, co-sponsor of the proposal. "This would be another tool for families who are overburdened and cannot afford to send their children to a four-year institution."
Some Upstate Republican lawmakers, however, are questioning whether the state can afford a new college scholarship.
"I like the idea of promoting technical colleges and providing more access to that type of education," said Rep. Joshua Putnam, R-Anderson. "But I'd have to figure out who's paying for it and where are those funds coming from."
Back at Greenville Tech, Danielle Houston was strolling down the hall toward the Robert W. Leach Sr. building, where classes are held for students who intend to transfer to four-year universities.
Houston said technical college costs a lot less than a university education — but it can still add up.
"It can be a little much, especially if you're paying on your own like I am," said Houston, 23, a business marketing major who will be transferring soon to USC Upstate.
Houston, who pulls more than $1,000 out of her pocket every semester for college, works full-time while attending classes full-time.
A chance to wipe out that tuition cost would put her on a faster track toward her career goal of pharmaceutical marketing.
"I could take more classes and finish sooner," Houston said.
Down the hall in the Leach building, Chance Chapman, 19, said that his merit-based LIFE Scholarship already pays for his own tuition, but a new scholarship would benefit many of his classmates.
"If it was free, it could help a lot of people out," said Chapman, who plans to transfer soon to North Greenville University next year.
Relatively few Greenville Tech students receive LIFE scholarships, according to school figures.
In spring semester last year, 826 students received LIFE scholarships out of a total enrollment of 10,774, or about 7.7 percent of students, according to Tech. LIFE scholarships are worth up to $5,000 per academic year.
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To be eligible for the LIFE scholarship, students must meet two of three academic benchmarks: graduate high school with a 3.0 grade-point average, rank in the top 30 percent of their class or score at least 1100 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT.
Nearly one-third of Greenville Tech students received some form of lottery-funded grants other than the LIFE scholarship, according to the school.
Tuition at Tech is $2,163 per semester for a full-time, 12-credit-hour student, with lottery-funded tuition assistance covering $1,140. That leaves $1,023 to come out of the student's pocket, according to Tech figures.
Tuition and fees at Clemson University, by comparison, comes to $7,159 per semester for in-state students, according to Clemson.
Opening the doors
The proposed scholarship is designed to open the doors of technical college to more students, said Allen and Hutto.
"Getting young people straight out of high school into technical college is a good model for making sure we have a better educated workforce," Hutto said.
The S.C. Promise Scholarship is based on a Tennessee scholarship, Hutto said.
"Early reports are that it's very successful," he said.
The Promise Scholarship would be limited to students who graduated from high school within six years.
"It is targeted to young workers," Hutto said.
The scholarship is not intended to replace any existing state or federal scholarships, such as Pell Grants or the LIFE Scholarship.
It's designed to help two-year college students who don't currently benefit from state or federal financial aid. For those students, the Promise Scholarship could pay for tuition and fees.
In addition, some lower-income students could qualify for an extra $1,500 a year for books, transportation costs and child care, among other expenses associated with college. Students whose household income is $30,000 or less could qualify for the $1,500 stipend.
"It would be a stipend for whatever is holding a student back from getting that technical college education beyond the actual tuition — up to a certain extent," Hutto said. "We obviously can't pay for everything in everybody's life. But there are some things that are hindrances. If you're a single parent and you don't have access to daycare, that can hold you back."
Greenville Tech President Keith Miller offered strong support for helping struggling students with expenses like daycare.
"That's absolutely a great idea," Miller said. "So many students at the two-year college level are single parents and even if they're not, the cost of child care can still be a challenge.
"There are several different barriers that students face to higher education and it's not always financial," Miller added. "Sometimes it's academic barriers. Sometimes it's a need to find child care."
Greenville Tech has its own child care center on its main campus.
The new scholarship could save four-year university students money — and big debt — by steering them to technical college for two years of college before transferring to a four-year program, backers of the legislation said.
"We're focusing on younger South Carolinians," Allen said. "They can use this as a stepping stone to go on to a four-year university."
Supporters of the scholarship emphasize that it's about helping students but also geared toward boosting South Carolina's economy.
"This opens that pipeline to potential workers," Allen said. "The technical schools are more in touch with the large employers that we're trying to attract in South Carolina. It's a win-win for the state of South Carolina."
GOP questions
Upstate Republican lawmakers said they like the idea but have many questions about the new scholarship.
"I'm not 100 percent against the idea," said state Putnam, the Anderson County representative. "The big question is how do you pay for it? If it's going to be free, who would take advantage of it? Who is it targeting? Is it targeting lower-class people who wouldn't have the opportunity to get this type of training, this type of schooling? Would wealthier people be able to take advantage of the program, too, and would that be necessary?
"I do think we need to promote technical college, especially in the rural parts of South Carolina. I think technical college is the best option to train a workforce for industries that are moving to South Carolina."
State Reps. Bruce Bannister and Mike Burns, who represent Greenville County, said they want to make technical college more accessible but also want to know how backers of the Promise Scholarship intend to fund it.
"I'm kind of in favor of this, which is making the technical college education a more mainstream option for kids who don't really know what they want to do," Bannister said. "They can get two years of a technical education where they would have a job skill. If they decided that more education was appropriate, they could borrow the money and pay for those last two years. But I don't know (if) we can afford to make technical college free for everybody because that's a fairly big ticket item. I'm not sure what you would not fund to cover that kind of number."
Burns, for his part, said, "I'm not sure how that's going to impact the budget process."
Allen said the scholarship could be funded through growth in state revenues.
Hutto said support for the proposal is growing across party lines.
"We've gotten bipartisan response from many of our Republican colleagues," he said.
The proposed scholarship may not get fully funded this year, Allen and Hutto said, but supporters are in it for the long haul.
"It takes a while to get people educated about the issue and to get your partners, like the Technical College System, and let them comment on it and offer tweaks about how we can save money or make it more effective," Hutto said. "This might be a multi-year process to get it passed."
Added Allen, "We'll keep pushing."
Paying big dividends
Hutto said the proposal is worth the cost, paying big dividends for the state and its young people.
"It's just an investment in ourselves," he said. "As people earn more, they're able to provide for their families and contribute to the economy and pay their taxes — all those things that go along with a higher income."
If the scholarship is not funded this year, supporters hope to partner with a technical college on a pilot program, Hutto said. Greenwood Tech, for instance, has raised $5 million from business and industry to implement a similar idea on its campus.
State and federal scholarships already provide a free ride or low tuition costs for many tech students. About 73 percent of students at Greenville Tech, for instance, receive some type of financial assistance, according to spokeswoman Becky Mann.
The state's merit-based LIFE Scholarship, for instance, could provide up to $5,000 for one academic year, Mann said. That could already cover all annual tuition costs at Greenville Tech.
"The state scholarship program is very robust and very generous on the part of our legislators, and that's good," said Miller, the Greenville Tech president. "It shows the importance they are placing on higher education."
Miller said he wants to look more closely at the proposed Promise Scholarship before giving it an enthusiastic endorsement. Other ideas might prove more efficient than a new scholarship, he said.
For instance, the state might provide more funding for dual-enrollment classes. Those are college courses that high school students take to earn credit for both high school and college. They get a head start on college and save money.
"They can start taking college credit courses as a junior or senior in high school," Miller said. "Think about the savings to the parents and to the state."
"What I endorse is making sure that we do a better job of creating access to higher education at two-year colleges," Miller said.
Paul Hyde covers education and everything else under the South Carolina sun. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.
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