Budget pressures have forced Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen to abandon plans to increase the lottery-scholarship awards for community college students.
Will Pinkston, a senior adviser to the Democratic governor, said raising the value of the annual scholarships from $2,000 to $3,000 had been one of Mr. Bredesen’s top priorities until just weeks ago.
Mr. Bredesen has called community colleges a magic ingredient for improving Tennesseans higher education program, but has so far been unable to fulfill his 2006 campaign promise to provide free tuition to two-year schools for high school students who maintain C averages or better.