Governor Haslam: College costs a major issue for legislators

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was in Kingsport Tuesday talking about issues the state will have to tackle during the next legislative session as the featured guest at the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce luncheon. 

He says one of the biggest problems the state is facing is the rising cost of college tuition.  Governor Haslam blames Congress for not sending enough money to the state to pay for TennCare. That's money the governor says would have gone to higher education.  

"We can't let tuition keep going up double-digit percents," says Governor Bill Haslam.  "We are going to price out of the market lower and middle income students right when we so much more need to increase the number of graduates."

The governor says with the new jobs that will be created between now and 2020, it's estimated that 65 percent of those employees will be required to have a college degree. 

We've learned that currently only 23 percent of Tennesseans have a diploma.