A bill working its way through the legislature might expand higher education opportunities for Tennessee 's foster children, but it faces a hard road ahead. Senate bill 3094 (House Bill 2619) eliminates the academic requirements for foster children attached to the Tennessee state lottery HOPE scholarships. Representative Kim McMillan is sponsoring the bill in the House and Joe Haynes is doing the same in the Senate.

Currently, in order to qualify for a HOPE scholarship grant, youth must maintain at least a 3.0 grade average. This bill would remove that restriction and give a former foster child the chance to receive a HOPE scholarship as long as he or she is accepted into the post-secondary institution. Children in foster care, even in the best of situations, experience significant amounts of emotional trauma. Also, these children experience several school and placement changes that adversely affect their grades in high school. Consequently, their high school performance is not a reliable indicator of success in college. Passage of this legislation would give former foster children the support of the scholarship as long as they remain in post-secondary education, giving them increased life opportunities. Last year almost 800 children turned 18 and aged out of Tennessee state custody and almost 1,300 are predicted to do the same this year. Many of these former foster children would not be eligible for entrance to college, but for those who are, this scholarship would be a much-needed opportunity.

This bill has been accused by some of being merely an exception for a special interest group. This is far from the truth. If the state has a responsibility to anyone who could receive the HOPE scholarship, it is to the ones for whom the state has acted as a custodian. If Tennessee has a child in its care until the age of 18, it has the responsibility to help that child transition out of state care. Most of these children do not have any family support or resources for college. Without it, college can seem an impossible goal for some foster children who would otherwise do well in a college environment. Participating in post-secondary education would give these former foster children a wider range of opportunity and a better chance to beat the adverse outcomes that so many former foster children encounter. As for the cost, it will be defrayed by other grants and scholarships available to foster children such as the Pell grant. Though the fiscal note on this bill is large ( approximately $756,000 in FY06-07 and approximately $1,134,000 in FY07-08) it is probably more than it would actually cost due to inflated estimates on the number of former foster children who would take advantage of this opportunity. Even with this fiscal note, the cost of the Tennessee HOPE Foster Child Tuition Grant will stay less than one percent of the total HOPE scholarship program this year and for the years to come.

There has been a fair amount of discussion over this bill and the vote on it has been deferred several times in the House Higher Education subcommittee. The Tennessee Lottery Commission voiced concern during one committee meeting, saying that there are many ideas to expand the lottery program but every one that passes will decrease the life of the lottery scholarship program. Several representatives echoed this concern. The biggest concern from the legislators, however, was over whether former foster care students would complete their post secondary education. Representative Dolores Greshem said that she has had foster children in her home and that they were behind the curve in their education. She expressed concern that passing this bill would be detrimental to foster children because it might set them up for failure. Another representative was worried that if this bill passed it would leave the door open for other groups.

Comments like these show that there are still misunderstandings among representatives about this bill. Tennessee has an obligation to the youth that are or have been in its custody. Foster children already face so many obstacles when they transition out of care. Expanding opportunities by decreasing the financial barrier to college is the least we could do to help.

Below is a list of legislators on the Higher Education Subcommittee. If any of them are in your district or if you know someone who is in their district, please contact them and tell ask them to support House Bill 2619. If you are not sure who your representative is you can find out at State of Tennessee Legislature Thank you.