TCASN recently published the Counting the Cost report, which examines the financial barriers - both tuition and nontuition barriers - Nashville State Community College students face during their journey to degree attainment.

The report provides an in-depth review of how set total cost of attendance and financial aid packages do not always provide enough funding to cover student basic needs. Despite aid, many students still struggle to pay for housing, food, transportation, healthcare and other basic needs.

Mayor O'Connell released his transit plan for Nashville, Choose How You Move, in April 2024. Here are a few of the transit recommendations from Point of Departure that are addressed in the mayor's proposal:

• Recommendation: City and college leadership should improve access to Nashville State Community College and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Nashville from Nashville’s highest need zip codes.

  • • TIP Proposal:

      • • 59% of sidewalk improvements and additions, 64% of bus stop improvements, and 66% of new transit centers will be within traditionally underrepresented communities

        • All-access bus corridor from the Capitol to White Bridge Road

        • Transit center near TSU (which is adjacent to 37208 zip code)

        • 80% of new routes walkable to historically underrepresented communities

• Recommendation: City leadership should secure dedicated funding for public transit.

  • • TIP Proposal: Mayor O'Connell is seeking dedicated funding with this proposal.

• Recommendation: City and regional leadership should increase access to bachelor’s degrees for low-income students by improving public transit access to Middle Tennessee public universities.

  • • TIP Proposal:

      • • Park and Ride facilities with potential regional connections to Murfreesboro, Clarksville

        • Transit center near TSU

TCASN has partnered with New Skills Ready to release its annual policy scan for 2023. Over the course of the past year, TCASN interviewed numerous stakeholders across the NSR Nashville Network to highlight policies that create direct or indirect barriers for students and explore potential solutions. To access the report, please use the button below.

Transportation has emerged as a consistent equity issue on our work, particularly as a barrier preventing students from accessing postsecondary education and training and work-based learning. In the hopes of advancing this issue from a policy perspective, New Skills Ready Nashville funded Point of Departure, a report on navigating Nashville as a college commuter. The report, authored by project partner the Tennessee College Access and Success Network, includes a series of findings about transit access and a set of recommendations that would address these barriers.

New Skills Ready Nashville was selected to participate in the Building Social Capital Initiative by Education Strategy Group (ESG). This initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aligns with our existing New Skills work around pathways and will provide our team with additional tools related to social capital best practices. Our team's participation in the project includes $100,000 in additional funding to support milestones related to social capital.

Nashville joins four other cities in this initiative. We were selected due to our "commitment to equitable student outcomes, your strong cross-sector leadership team, and your impressive work to date to strengthen career pathways, work-based learning, and career advising to put more students on a path to postsecondary success."

Metro Nashville Public Schools released their Equity Roadmap in May 2022. This document will drive a district-wide focus on equity over the next 5-10 years. In summer of 2022, every MNPS teacher and school administrator will participate in multi-day trainings on the equity roadmap and advancing equitable practices across every school in the district.

For more information about the Roadmap, contact Ashford Hughes, Executive Officer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Metro Nashville Public Schools at Ashford.Hughes@mnps.org.