Despite Concerns, Tennessee Officials Say Governor’s Higher Education Plan Won’t Hinder Cooperation

State officials say they’re working to address concerns about the proposal to give some universities more autonomy.

Gov. Bill Haslam announced late last year that he wanted to essentially spin out four-year schools from the Tennessee Board of Regents and let them establish their own boards. He said that would allow TBR to focus on community and technical colleges.

But the FOCUS Act, as it’s called, has its critics — most notably, former TBR chancellor John Morgan. He even resigned last month, saying he couldn’t in good faith act as chancellor if the governor wanted him to restructure the system.

Here’s one of the biggest problems with the plan, Morgan says: Schools in Tennessee compete for funding, which means if one university outperforms another, the first will get more money and the second could get less.

“We have had in years past, and will certainly have in years future, circumstances where colleges and universities will gain or lose because of what’s going on in other colleges and universities,” he says.

Right now, the TBR schools have an incentive to work together because they’re all part of the same system, Morgan says, but they might be more likely to keep good ideas to themselves if the FOCUS Act passes.

Without an overarching system encouraging cooperation, Morgan says, “it’s really unlikely that the schools are going to spend a lot of time thinking about how to be good partners.”

The governor’s office has acknowledged that concern, and Mike Krause, who’s helping craft the plan, says a new version of the proposal addresses it. For example, the bill now includes several lines about the importance of cooperation and alignment between all the schools.

“What I want to make clear is a key part of the governor’s vision is that creating six boards for universities does not eliminate the cooperation we’ve seen in the last several years,” he says. 

Even though these issues have been raised, the restructuring plan appears to be on track for passage: It’s already been moving quickly through the state House and Senate.