TAG Program Dodges a Bullet ... This Time

At this time last week, Lynchburg College President Kenneth Garren was worried, as likely were the leaders of other private colleges and universities across the commonwealth.

On Feb. 17, Gov. Bob McDonnell unveiled his proposed changes to the 2010/2012 biennial budget. What got all the attention that day, and on succeeding days, were his proposed $731 million cut in funding to the state’s public schools and cuts of more than $300 million to social services programs.

Buried in the governor’s budget plan was a small item — a $20 million cut and mission change to something called Tuition Assistance Grants. That’s what caught Garren’s attention and made his blood run cold.

TAG has been around for decades. It’s a program designed to make the many private colleges and universities in Virginia affordable for the commonwealth’s best and brightest students, keeping them home for the benefit of future Virginians. Each Virginia high schooler who has been accepted to a private college in state receives TAG money — right now $3,000 a year — to help defray his tuition expenses.

Established in 1972 after much legislative legwork by Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, TAG dollars have made it possible for any Virginia student to attend college, private or public, in the commonwealth.

The governor’s proposed $20 million cut was bad enough, but what really caught Garren’s eye was McDonnell’s proposal to make TAG awards needs-based, rather than outright grants to any Virginia student wanting to attend a private school in the commonwealth.

Not only would it be a logistical nightmare for colleges to determine exactly what is “need-based” for each student, but it would go against the original intent of the program.

Thankfully, the budget-writing committees in the House of Delegates and State Senate got clued into the governor’s plans and took corrective action. Now, it’s simply a matter of waiting to see what emerges from the work of the budget conferees in the coming days and weeks.

Both the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance Committee, in their budgets unveiled last Sunday, restored the program’s original intent — outright one-sum grants of aid to any Virginia student, in addition to cutting only $10 million, half the governor’s proposed cut.

The Senate’s budget, perhaps in anticipation that the state and national economies would improve this year, puts off the entire $10 million cut to the second year of the state’s two-year budget.

The House budget-writers, led by Del. Putney, have taken the more conservative approach, proposing $5 million cuts in both years of the biennium, likely guessing the economy won’t improve much this year and deciding to spread the pain over two years rather than one.

As LC’s Garren explained in a conversation with The News & Advance, TAG dollars go directly to students to use at any qualified, private, nonprofit college in the state. The top two destinations of students with TAG dollars are right here in Central Virginia: Liberty University with close to 3,000 students with TAG dollars in hand, Lynchburg College’s 1,300 TAG students make that college second.

Forward-thinking educational leaders and politicians, including Del. Putney, realized decades ago the importance of keeping the commonwealth’s best and brightest students in Virginia for their higher education experience. Numerous studies have shown that, if a high school student goes out-of-state for college, the odds are against his ever returning to his home state.

That talent is lost forever.

TAG was designed to make Virginia’s numerous private institutions of higher learning a bit more affordable for Virginia high school students. Any student, regardless of his ability to pay, who met a minimum set of standards could receive TAG dollars to use at any accredited, nonprofit college in Virginia.

It’s a good program with a proven track record over the course of four decades. Why Gov. McDonnell wanted to rewrite its fundamental mission is a mystery to us, but we’re glad Lacey Putney was there to stop him in his tracks.

It may not seem like a big issue, but these days, when America’s global economic leadership is on the line, nothing can be taken for granted.