As the Tennessee General Assembly wound through the longest legislative session in the state’s history, tuition for students at ETSU and Board of Regents schools was hiked 15 percent for this academic year.
“I was not pleased, at the end of the day, when the legislature adjourned, at the overall support of education,” President Stanton said.
The latest tuition increase comes on the heels of last year’s 10 percent jump, and a 7 percent spike the year before.
“I think that basically, student tuition increases ought to reflect inflation and be about 3 percent,” Stanton said. “When you’re significantly above that, I think you’re doing harm to the students.”
The rises have been forced by a string of yearly state budgets that have not fully funded higher education in Tennessee since the 1980s.
Still, ETSU was recently recognized yet again by the Kaplan/Newsweek College Catalog 2002 as a top university in the category “Schools that offer the best value for your tuition dollar.”
“People can argue that Tennessee is a low tuition state,” Stanton said. “And it has been in the past. It’s been a great deal for students.
“But we in the last three years, according to Southern Regional Education Board statistics, have been one of the fastest increases of tuition in the South. That doesn’t mean we’re on the top as far as the tuition level, but we’re zooming towards the top.”
Of the recent designation, Stanton said, “I think it’s a testament that’s very strong on behalf of the people that are continuing to make it work and the quality of students that we have coming into this university.” But he added, “It doesn’t make what we’re getting from state appropriations right.
“I do think that the quality of education on the whole across Tennessee and certainly at ETSU has been preserved. How much longer we can preserve it remains to be seen.”
“We’ve got people literally doing two or three times (the amount of work expected for) full jobs. We’ve got a vice-provost that ought to be dealing strictly with academic affairs dealing with academic affairs and admissions, and advisement. I worry about people burning out. So far, so good.”
State Senator Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, who voted for the current budget and also voted to override the governor’s subsequent veto of the budget, agrees the current funding level for higher education in this state is not consistent with “our dreams for Tennessee.”
“We’re going to have to do more than we’re doing now,” said Crowe, who is the assistant director of ETSU’s Office of the Comptroller.
The budget, now in effect, includes no new taxes and is funded largely by one-time tobacco-company-lawsuit settlement money.
The senator, who maintains an income tax is unconstitutional in this state, voted for the budget upon deciding no other plan would surface that would not include an income tax.
He also did not want to force a “continuation budget” on the state, which would have been in effect now if no other budget had been approved. That budget would not have included 2.5 percent salary increases for state employees and would not have provided money for student loans for which the approved budget provides.
The continuation budget also would have levied a one-dollar fine for every dollar a university reaped from a tuition hike.
“The continuation budget was very scary,” Crowe said. He blames income-tax proponents for making sure the continuation budget was so bad as to “force” action that would result in an income tax.
Crowe, in addition to his stance on the constitutionality of an income tax, promised while on the campaign trail not to vote for one. He said if all other options were exhausted, however, he would ask his constituents to release him from that promise. Yet, it’s the legality, he said, that keeps him from asking for that release.
If such a levy were to again be ruled unconstitutional by the Tennessee Supreme Court, “then I’m violating my oath of office that I took with my hand on the Bible” to uphold the laws of the state were he to vote for an income tax, Crowe said.
On four separate occasions, in the 1920s, `30s, 40s and `60, Tennessee’s highest court unanimously rejected the constitutionality of an income tax, citing that only privileges, and not rights, can be taxed in this state while decreeing that the right to work and earn money is not a privilege.
If the issue were to again pop up in the state’s high court, Crowe doubts three out of five judges, the requisite number for a decision, would vote for an income tax, especially since their seats on the bench are subject to the electorate’s approval on a yes/no vote.
“I don’t envy the legislators,” Stanton said. “They are caught in a difficult time with a lot of varying emotions. … And yet, something has to be done for higher education.”
The president sees only significant tax reform or re-prioritization of state expenditures with a greater emphasis on education as options for the state government now.
“There’s some legislators who sincerely believe the problem is on the expenditure side of the state. Well, if it is, then you cut expenses, but re-prioritize education.
“So a big thing is to look at your statewide priorities. And isn’t one of them, doesn’t one of them have to be, better education, better support of education? The answer is yes, and I certainly think most of the legislators would appreciate that and support it.”
Stanton said he was supportive of the governor’s veto.
“It’s a bad budget, and we’ve already seen a reaction from the bond rating people,” Stanton said. They’ve downgraded us again – two years running now.”
However, he does see some positives in the veto override.
“I think the fact that it was overridden still at least gave us some positives, including a final number that I could begin to work with,” Stanton said, making reference to the time crunch resulting from the length of the legislative session. “I may not like that number, but at least I’ve got something to work with.
“When they go back, they’re going to be in a horrible situation for next year,” Stanton said. “I mean, they had a pot of gold in the tobacco money,” which, “was never intended to balance the state’s budget.”
“I think spring of this next year, enough cities, enough counties, enough people are going to be concerned with the bad things that are going to start occurring, that they’re going to put pressure on the legislators to take corrective action,” Stanton said.
That pressure could also come from students. “I think that you all as students need to let the elected officials know that you’re not happy,” Stanton said.

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