Did I read this right?

From an article in today's Times, "Tennessee Governor Urges 2 Free Years of Community College and Technical School" (my emphasis):

Public colleges have sharply raised their prices since the 1990s in the face of declining state support, but a plan by Tennessee’s governor to make two years of community college and technical school free for all students represents a striking reversal of that trend.

Tennessee would be the only state in the country to charge no tuition or fees to incoming students under the proposal by Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, which policy analysts called a big step toward a better-educated work force.

“We just needed to change the culture of expectations in our state,” the governor said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “College is not for everybody, but it has to be for a lot more people than it’s been in the past if we’re going to have a competitive work force.”

A Republican urging the government to improve people's lives? How many tea party challengers have stepped forward since Gov. Haslam's proposal?