Endowments are generally funded within five years of the initial contribution. Only the interest from the principal donation will be applied toward the designated purpose. One of the goals of the SC Technical College System Foundation is to develop a significant endowment fund to ensure the long-term growth and stability of the SC Technical College System. The Technical College System is currently serving over 210,000 South Carolinians through credit programs, occupational upgrading and pre-employment industry training. Without proportionate funding increases, the colleges continue to experience extreme difficulty in providing quality post-secondary education and maintaining an open admissions policy.
Access is threatened as student fees become a substitute for state support.
Increasing student fees threatens access to technical education for South Carolinians who will make up the workforce of the future. Declines in state funding and rising enrollment have forced the technical colleges to use student fees as their only alternative funding source. State Equipment Allocations Enrollment Forty percent of all students enrolled in a public postsecondary institution are enrolled at a technical college. This is second only to public four-year institutions which have 43 percent of the total undergraduate enrollment. Although the technical colleges show the second highest enrollment figures for the state, their average tuition is the lowest of all higher education institutions across South Carolina.