Opinion

Reregulation may cost students

Student life is financially volatile because college is not cheap. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst realized this as well, announcing a bill last week to reregulate tuition and deal with the top 10 percent admission issue at state universities.

Almost six years ago, Dewhurst was part of a successful movement to deregulate tuition.

Removing caps and allowing universities to set individual tuition rates resulted in a 53 percent increase in tuition and fees at universities statewide. Deregulation was intended as a bailout for the state, which was facing a severe budget shortfall of roughly $10 billion caused by declining tax revenue and increasing expenses at the time of the bill’s passage. With a budget shortfall came big hits to state funding for schools, funds intended to offset the burden of tuition for low-income Texans, which ultimately led to the deregulation bill in order to recoup loss of capital.

The prospect of deserving young Texans being priced out of vital post-secondary education has brought about the current sentiment. Dewhurst and many state lawmakers must pass legislation capping tuition and dealing with other issues pertaining to the admissions process and funding of higher education.

With the regulation of tuition comes the prospect of many schools losing vital funding necessary to maintain and improve facilities, faculties and curriculum. The amount of funding a school needs is in direct relation to its student population. The former must increase with the latter, or all of our degrees will be devalued.

Lawmakers may not be thinking of it now, but next in line – and perhaps rightly so – is a state income tax. Reregulating tuition may be the catalyst lawmakers have been waiting for to justify instituting a statewide income tax. Texas, Florida, Wyoming, Washington, Alaska, Nevada and South Dakota are the only states without a state income tax. The reasoning behind a proposal such as this would be logically sound, because higher education is arguably one of the few avenues lawmakers could use to get a statewide income tax approved with little opposition.

The mandatory top 10 percent college admissions standard also needs to be addressed in some form, as this is indirectly related to the need for more flagship institutions in the state. Two of the largest universities in the country, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, have such enormous student populations because of the 10 percent rule that getting enrolled in lower-level classes in some colleges is needlessly arduous.

More flagship universities and elimination of the 10 percent rule will encourage students to consider other options for post-secondary education, sincewe all know how much prestige matters.

Daniel Wheeler is a pre-business sophomore and may be reached at [email protected].

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