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Tuition Grants Commission: director and commission chair describe program that subsidizes private college attendance
Summary
The Tuition Grants Commission administers a state program providing grants to South Carolinians who attend eligible independent colleges; Director Katie Harrison and commission chair Boone Hopkins gave personal and programmatic perspectives on effectiveness and cost avoidance.
Katie Harrison, executive director of the Tuition Grants Commission, and Boone Hopkins, chair of the commission and president of a private college, told the oversight committee the state program helps make private-college attendance affordable for low- and middle-income South Carolina residents.
Harrison said the commission administers grants exclusively for eligible students attending independent institutions; she described the program as a long-running investment (since 1970) that has dispersed hundreds of thousands of grants and estimated a nearly $994 million cost-avoidance figure for state taxpayers by shifting some students to independent colleges. She offered a personal story about how a state grant enabled her own college attendance and career and urged continued support for the program as a tool to increase postsecondary attainment while saving public dollars.
Hopkins added commission-level statistics: Pell-eligible and other recipients come from all 46 counties; in 2022–23 the average private undergraduate tuition/fee figure cited was approximately $27,343 and the average tuition-grant award was about $4,391. He said the program supports institutions that enroll roughly 36,000 students statewide and argued that tuition grants reduce the net cost to the state versus those students attending public institutions.
Committee members thanked witnesses and asked for follow-up materials; Harrison said the agency would work with the committee and noted the agency’s long history and relatively small staff.
