80th Legislature: Faster Graduation, But No Tuition Regulation

A front page story in the Dallas Morning News that accosted me at the gas station this morning was this one about Governor Perry pushing for faster graduation rates, more engineering and computer science degrees, and a $1.7 billion package of new money.

Gosh, it’s hard to pack everything you need to into one legislative session when you are running for Vice President, isn’t it?

Anyway, Perry’s plan does nothing to control skyrocketing tuition costs that are keeping more and more middle class students out of college or saddling them with even more student loan debt.

Here’s the breakdown on the funding proposal:

Total: $711 million in new state spending, plus an additional $1 billion projected from tuition, health care delivery and federal funds, for a total of $1.7 billion more in 2008-09 than the $18 billion currently budgeted.

$300 million to universities that meet incentives.
$492 million for combined tuition grants for students with financial need and a high school grade-point average of at least 3.0.

$44 million for technology grants to double the number of engineering and computer science graduates. Students who graduate on time with a 2.5 grade-point average or better do not have to repay the grant.

$405 million by 2008-09 for the B-on-Time student loan program. The loan is forgiven if students graduate on time and with a 3.0 GPA.

$17 million as incentives for retaining, recruiting and educating nurses.

I’ll be interested to see how this also plays out as the Top Ten Percent Rule is, once again, the subject of legislative debate.

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