I thought you might be interested in reading the portion of Governor Bredesen’s State of the State Address devoted to higher education.

 

STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

GOVERNOR PHIL BREDESEN

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

 

. . .

 

Someone asked me not too long ago what I would work on if I could have a third term, and my answer

was "higher education." It's the remaining leg of the education stool, and while we have made huge

capital investments, there is still a great deal of work to be done.

 

We lag the national averages in the proportion of our citizens who have post-secondary degrees, and if

we let that continue, we'll be pushed increasingly to the backwaters of the world economy. We have

such a wealth of opportunities right now, and it would be a tragedy to forfeit them because we failed to

equip our children with the education they need.

 

The costs of Tennessee higher education continue to grow, and the ability of state government to cover

them is limited. That has meant raising tuition, and every increase means that much more difficulty for

some student, that much more likelihood of abandoning the dream of a college degree. It's time now to

fix that.

 

When I was in the business world, I was always the little guy. When I ran a managed care company, I

competed in many cases against Prudential, or CIGNA, or Kaiser. A lesson I learned very clearly was that

you often can't be the biggest, or the richest, but you can still try to be the smartest. Over these next

couple of years, let's figure out how to do that.

 

In Tennessee, we have wisely insulated higher education from the rest of state government; through

boards of trustees that have a great deal of independence and responsibility, and that is an appropriate

and effective way to do so. To the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees, the Board of Regents,

and the THEC commissioners: tonight I ask you to step outside the box and work with me and the

General Assembly to figure out how we can keep higher education affordable, how we can get more kids

to graduate; how we can fashion a true 21st century higher education system for our state.

 

Timothy L. Hall

President

P.O. Box 4576

Clarksville TN 37044

 

(931) 221-7567 (office)

 

(931) 221-7297 (fax)