Friday, February 20, 2009
Education / Legislature / Politics / Woods Bredesen Talks About Consolidating Higher Education Systems
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 7:15 AM
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Here's a story about how governors across the country are using the economic crisis as a catalyst to streamline, revamp and overhaul government. What's Tennessee doing? Squat. Gov. Phil Bredesen did say in his "State of State" speech that he'd really like to do something about the higher education system, which is an inefficient mess, if only he had one more term in office. Oh well.
But now, the governor is saying he might try to consolidate the state's university systems. "This is a time to look at revisions," Bredesen told the Chattanooga Times Free Press yesterday. "Certainly the notion occurred to a lot of people, including me, to put (the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee) together."
"It is an interesting window of opportunity," he pointed out. University of Tennessee president John Petersen quit yesterday, Board of Regents Chancellor Charles Manning is retiring, and the system faces big budget cuts in two years once the federal stimulus money goes away.
Then weirdly, Bredesen added that in two weeks he may decide not to go forward, calling the situation "fluid." That's making a commitment, governor.
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