Educating Tennessee

Join The Tennessean in a conversation with Gov. Bill Haslam about higher education, its importance and what’s left to be done. 6 p.m. CST Monday “It’s a lot more of a challenge than a blanket, universal” program.

Higher ed handoff to Bill Lee will be significant

Vandal, the Complete College America leader, said the presence of a strong, supportive governor in Haslam had been instrumental in Tennessee’s continued growth.

Haslam, a Republican, inherited a college landscape in flux from former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, with a series of new reforms just taking root.

“It could have very easily been nipped in the bud as soon as a governor from a different party came in,” Vandal said.

Haslam did not back away from the Bredesen-era changes.

“He actually doubled down,” Vandal said. “If anything we saw the state move forward more aggressively with more innovative approaches.”

Another gubernatorial shift will take place on Jan. 19, when Lee takes over from Haslam.

Lee has repeatedly voiced support for Drive to 55, Haslam’s suite of programs aiming to put 55 percent of Tennesseans through college by 2025.

“The governor-elect believes Drive to 55 has helped Tennessee put a muchneeded focus on workforce development,” Lee spokeswoman Laine Arnold said in a statement.

While promoting Drive to 55, Haslam repeatedly stressed that students of all interests and ambitions could find a path through higher education — through a four-year university, a community college or a technical college.

Lee has suggested his approach will be different, saying in one campaign commercial that “for way too long we’ve told people, ‘You’ve got to go to college.’ ”

Arnold said the Lee administration would build on Drive to 55 “by emphasizing additional pathways to success, including career and technical education and improving access to workbased learning.”

“With major companies like Google and IBM no longer requiring college degrees for jobs like coding, we need to ensure our goals are nimble enough to meet the demands of a quickly changing job market.”

Vandal predicted that the transition from Haslam to Lee would be significant as the state moves forward from Tennessee Promise.

“The real challenge is to be able to stay the course and not recede,” he said. “These things have their cycles.”

Reach Adam Tamburin at atamburin@tennessean.com or 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.

The USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program, spent months examining Tennessee’s closely watched efforts to expand college access and improve graduation rates, especially for black, Latino and poor students. Read more at education.tennessean.com.