February 5, 2009

COLUMBIA—Nearly 40,000 technical college students in South Carolina—or one in three—receive lottery-funded tuition assistance (LTA), which amounts to $900 per semester for those enrolled full time. However, because of the financial crisis, the State’s budget has already been cut by more than $1 billion, and the legislature is looking for ways to trim it even more. Also, revenue generated by the South Carolina Education Lottery could be used for expenses other than assisting technical college students with their tuition—opening the door to the possibility of drastically reducing or eliminating LTA.

In response, and to show their support for the lottery tuition program, approximately 300 students from across South Carolina gathered last week at the Statehouse in Columbia, where legislators as well as technical college officials and students spoke about the importance of the lottery funds in education. Eighteen students from York Technical College participated.

York Tech’s Tina Outen, who is pursuing an associate degree in Early Childhood Development, attended the rally in Columbia. Outen believes it's critical that the funding remain intact, or be enhanced, in the next state budget. “Without lottery assistance I would have never been able to go to college and pursue a degree,” she said. And that’s also true for many of her classmates, she said. 

Vicki Pennington, another York Tech student who made the trip to Columbia, said deciding to return to school was an easy decision.

“How and where to get the money was the hard decision,” Pennington said.

After receiving a Stafford Loan her freshman year and a small amount of federal financial aid, Pennington realized she may not have enough to pursue a degree in Criminal Justice. It was finding out that she was eligible for Lottery Tuition Assistance that made the difference.