COLUMBIA (WACH) -- Leon Rogers is a student at Florence Darlington Technical College who recently battled colon cancer.
He says because of mounting medical expenses if it wasn't for the Lottery Tuition Assistance Program, he would not be in school today.
“I think it’s important that students get a chance to get a quality education in the state of South Carolina,” says Rogers.
Tuesday morning nearly one hundred technical college students from across South Carolina rallied at the State House.
As lawmakers start cutting the budget, these students say they want them to cut elsewhere and spare education.
“We definitely know that we will receive a cut this year,” says Darrel Staat, Assistant President of South Carolina Technical College System.
Unlike the Hope and Life scholarships the "LTA" program is not guaranteed.
So every year students and program leaders lobby with state lawmakers hoping to keep the funding for technical schools.
“We assume somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five percent is what our cut will be. This year we have already received severe cuts in the past two years about fifty percent," says Staat.
Some of the students received recognition on the House Floor Tuesday because they made the trip to the State House.
Rogers says he hopes their visit to the state house will speak volumes to the legislature.
Faculty and staff members were also there lobbying to make sure any cuts would not affect their jobs.
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