Tennessee Governor proposes new plan for free in-state community college tuition

The Governor of Tennessee, William Haslam, has proposed that the state use lottery funds in order to provide all graduates with two years free education at a community or technical college in the area.

The proposal was first made public in February and is now on the road to approval after gaining the support from many of the Governor's Republican colleagues.

The proposal is called "Tennessee Promise" and will allow high school graduates to attend any in state community or technical college without having to pay any tuition fees. According to Yahoo! News, the estimation of the project is around $34 million each year.

“As we encourage more Tennesseans to continue their education, we know we have to remove as many barriers as possible. Cost is often the biggest hurdle to furthering education," said Haslam during his State of the State address.

David Blaime, senior vice president of government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges, supports Haslam's proposal and told FoxNews.com, "We think it's a very exciting idea," Baime told FoxNews.com, "The governor's proposal is designed to make tuition free for any student who graduates high school, enrolls full-time, who does well academically and who stays in school. So there's little bit of asking something from the student, as well as giving the student the ability to not pay any tuition."

FoxNews.com noted that this plan would be different from the Tennessee Hope Scholarship already offered by the star because this would guarantee free tuition for all of the state's students graduating high school.

Some citizens are against the "Tennessee Promise" because it will cut from the budget for Hope scholarships, reducing the scholarships for four year universities to $3,000 from the current amount of $4,000.

"We think that an over-emphasis on the baccalaureate degree, as important as that degree can be for many people, is a mistake," Baime explained. "Many of the jobs in our economy these days don't require a four-year degree. An associate's degree, a two-year degree, or even, in some cases, a one-year certificate ... give people very good jobs."

Although Baime agrees that the Hope scholarship has been very beneficial to students, he feels as if the "Tennessee Promise" will make Tennessee citizens better educated.