Tenn. drops plans to boost college scholarship awards.

Tenn. drops plans to boost college scholarship awards. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Budget pressures have forced Gov. PhilBredesen Philip Norman "Phil" Bredesen (born November 21, 1943) is the 48th Governor of Tennessee, having served since 2003. He previously served as the fourth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County from 1991 to 1999. to abandon plans to boost the lottery scholarship awards forcommunity college students. Will Pinkston, a senior adviser to the Democratic governor, saidthat increasing the annual scholarships from $2,000 to $3,000 had beenone of Bredesen's top priorities until just weeks ago. Higher education officials are warning that demand for lotteryscholarships could soon outstrip out��strip?tr.v. out��stripped, out��strip��ping, out��strips1. To leave behind; outrun.2. To exceed or surpass: "Material development outstripped human development"the state's ability to pay forthem. They point to increased enrollment amid poor economic conditionsand an expected increase in the number of eligible students because ofmore accountability in education. "If what we are trying to do as a government is encourage morepeople to go into the two-year environment, perhaps we need to putincentives in place to better make that happen," Pinkston told theChattanooga Times Free Press The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Tom Griscom and is distributed in the metro Chattanooga region. It is one of Tennessee's major newspapers. . "But that isn't going to happenthis year." Bredesen has called community colleges a "magicingredient" for improving Tennesseans' higher educationprogram, but has so far been unable to fulfill his 2006 campaign promiseto provide free tuition to two-year schools for high school students whomaintain C averages or better. Bredesen has announced a special legislative session on educationnext month. On higher education, the governor's proposals includestandardizing community college courses to make it more clear whichcredits transfer to four-year schools and shifting all remedialeducation responsibilities from four-year schools to community colleges. "We have a deficit that is going to continue to widen overtime if the program continues to grow," said David Wright David Wright may refer to: David Wright (baseball), (born 1982) American Major League Baseball player for the New York Mets David McKee Wright (1869-1928) Irish born Australian poet and journalist David Wright (artist), (1912-1967) British artist and illustrator ,associate executive director of policy, planning and research at theTennessee Higher Education Commission The Tennessee Higher Education Commission was established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1967, primarily to achieve coordination between the various public higher education institutions in the state. . That may require lawmakers to consider making lottery scholarshipsmore difficult to earn and keep, lowering scholarship amounts, orcanceling smaller programs, Wright said. "If in fact we do want to increase the community collegeaward, I think there could be good reasons to do that, but we have toaddress these fiscal realities," he said. Chattanooga State Community College President Jim Catanzaro said hewas disappointed to hear that the increased scholarships are no longeron the table. Two-year schools can be a better academic fit for manyhigh school graduates, and are far less expensive than four-yearschools. "It is in the best interest of students and certainly thetaxpayers for students to come to community college initially,"Catanzaro said. Comments: editor@ccweek.com BY MICHAEL DUMAS, THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS