Candidates For Governor Promise Heavy Spending On Tennessee's Technical Colleges

Technical colleges could get a big boost under Tennessee's next governor.

Many of the top candidates are pledging to increase funding for the state's tech schools. They say putting more money into those institutions is the best way to close Tennessee's so-called skills gap.

Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd has one of the most concrete proposals: He wants to spend as much as half a billion dollars over two years upgrading technical colleges and building new campuses adjacent to the state's high schools.

"We've got too many communities in our state — like Johnson County, Grundy County — that have no technical education programs whatsoever. We have other schools that have old equipment."

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