The General Assembly finds that:

(1) a significant part of the state mission in education has been to enhance excellence in higher education for low-income and educationally disadvantaged students;

(2) certain institutions have played an integral role in offering higher educational access to low-income and educationally disadvantaged students who otherwise might not have been able to obtain a college education, which has resulted in a substantial public benefit;

(3) these institutions provide a unique educational opportunity for these targeted groups of students by offering flexible admission policies, low tuition rates, and small enrollments to ensure smaller class size tailored to the needs of these targeted students;

(4) these institutions are often limited in their abilities to raise funds from their respective student populations from tuition and fees because of the demographic profiles of their students and, as a result, charge tuition rates which on average are substantially lower than those charged by other higher educational institutions in this State;

(5) the federal government has recognized the unique ability of certain institutions to accomplish the important public benefit of enhancing opportunities in higher education for low-income and educationally disadvantaged students;

(6) public educational assistance made available to the institutions that serve these targeted students provides a direct educational benefit to the students by improving the overall quality of their educational experiences by offering enhanced facilities and improved academic instruction; and

(7) it is necessary that the State of South Carolina enable these institutions to effectively partner with the federal government to ensure the continued existence in this State of these institutions, which provide a substantial public benefit to the State by enabling these targeted students to be well-educated, to move into the workforce, and to improve the quality of life in South Carolina.

HISTORY: 2003 Act No. 24, Section 1.