Make College Affordable For Texas Families Again

By Joe Jaworski

Forty-five years ago this month, Alabama Governor George Wallace infamously stood in the schoolhouse door to try to stop a generation of students from attending classes.

Five years ago this month, Texas political leaders essentially did the same thing when they pushed through a deregulation bill that sent tuition rates at the state’s public colleges and universities skyrocketing — pricing a generation of otherwise eligible Texas students out of a college education.

Let’s reopen the doors of higher education by making college affordable again for the Texas families who foot the bills for our higher education system.

Tuition has predictably soared since it was deregulated in 2003, climbing by at least 112 percent, according to the state’s own figures. Meanwhile, the state’s share of funding at our flagship university (and my alma mater) is down to just 17 percent. And young families like mine, who had the opportunity to lock in the future cost of college tuition and fees for our first child through the popular Texas Tomorrow Fund, no longer have that same option for our second child. Tuition deregulation killed that, too.

What Texas politicians did in 2003 made no economic sense then. It makes even less today, when a college degree is worth $1.3 million more in lifetime earnings than a high school diploma, according to a recent Commerce Department report. Why would politicians want to limit the earning potential of good tax-paying citizens?

College tuition hikes aren’t the only thing putting the squeeze on Texas families, either. Gasoline is at record highs, utility costs are up an average of 56 percent since 2000, and windstorm insurance is soaring out of reach for small businesses along the Gulf. The ongoing mortgage crisis threatens first-time homebuyers, and even Texans who can still afford their homes are paying more than twice the national average to insure them. Not to mention the fact that 5.5 million Texans can’t afford health care for their families even though they have jobs. More than 1.5 million children have no health insurance at all — more than in any other state.

It’s time to give Texas families a tax cut they can use. The Legislature in January should consider a moratorium on tuition and fee increases to make college more affordable while giving parents and students trying to budget college costs more predictability. Families blessed with great wealth don’t have to worry about college costs, while poor families still have at least a few needs-based funding options available to them. But the rest of us — working families who work hard and play by the rules — are getting squeezed.

Higher education is a shared responsibility between state government and Texas families who value our fine public colleges and universities. China, India, Brazil, South Korea, and other emerging economies are boosting their investments in higher education because they have decided this is the time to train the next generation of our global competitors. Political leaders in Texas — which would be the eleventh strongest economy on earth if we were a sovereign nation — should be moving us in the same direction.

Posted on June 11, 2008 | Return to the Latest News Archive