Tuition Needs Regulation

In 2003, the 76^th Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3015 deregulating tuition of public universities.  In addition, HB 3015 also requires universities to set aside 15 % of tuition to provide financial assistance for students and lessen the effects of tuition deregulation.  Another 5% is required to be set-aside to fund the Texas B-on-Time Student Loan Program.  In all, for fiscal years 2005-2008, $248 million was set aside for undergraduates and $48 million for graduate students.  Since deregulation, the total academic charges, including tuition and fees, for a student at a public university has increased 72 percent.  With these increases, universities have reported a growing share of their operational income is funded by tuition and fees for the following purposes: the use of funds to recruit and retain faculty and staff, increase academic course offerings, lower the student-teacher ratio, offer student services, maintain facilities, pay utility costs, service building debt, and provide additional financial aid to students.

When looking at data provided for before and after deregulation, there have been drastic increases in tuition and fees, which have only gotten worst over the years.  In 2003 at the University of Texas at Austin, there was a statutory tuition (set by the legislature) of $690 dollars and a designated tuition (set by the board of regents) of $690 totaling into a $1,380 fee per semester.  Including another $641 in fees, it cost $2,721 to attend UT in 2003 (excluding books and living costs).  By 2009, statutory tuition increased to $750 and the designated tuition increased to $2,276 with a total tuition of $3, 026.  Accounting for the fees, which increased only slightly, it cost $4,468 to attend in UT in 2009.  The change in tuition totaled $1,646, or 119% between the two years while the total cost increased$1,747, or 64%.  The total cost (tuition plus fees) has only increased slightly since then: today the total cost at UT for Texas residents is $4,915 for a 15-hour load.  For comparison, non-residents would pay $17,418 per semester.  While statutory tuition is determined by the Texas Legislature as a set amount per semester credit hour, the designated tuition is determined by a governing board at each institution of higher education at a level that the board considers necessary for the operation of the institution.  HB 3015 eliminated the previous limits on the governing boards to set designated tuition rates so that there is currently no limit on the amount of tuition the university may charge.  Universities argue that, because of inflation and less money being provided by the state (an 11% decrease per student), campuses had to raise tuition to make up for lost revenue. 

As a current student at the University of Texas at Austin, I have not seen the improvements that were supposed to result from the additional tuition revenue.  In my college, there are few people who seem to receive financial aid, there is not an improved student-teacher ratio, and there are not enough sections of degree-required courses to allow you to stay on track for a four-year graduation.  And there seems to be little improvement of existing facilities, but there are new buildings being constructed.  In addition, while the passage of house bill 3015 included financial assistance to be set-aside to help with the impact of deregulation, the financial aid would not have been required if there had been no tuition increases as a result of deregulation.  While there is some financial aid available, the increase of tuition, about 55 percent, is placing several leading universities, including UT, out of reach for middle-income families that cannot qualify for financial aid.  Many students and families must look for funding from other places and usually must take out loans.  By the time many students leave college, they are stuck with more than a hundred thousand dollars of loans that need to be paid off, with no guarantee they will have a job once they graduate, or that even with a job, they can afford to pay off the loan.  The amount student loans has now surpassed the amount of credit-card debt in this country and many financial experts worry that it will be a huge drain on our economy.  People spend so much paying off student loans that they cannot afford to buy new cars or houses, which hurts those sectors and results in fewer available jobs.  With more students attending universities and cuts to higher education funding, the current problem at hand will continue to grow and cause even bigger issues to develop.

Tuition should be regulated so that it is controlled by our elected representative who are responsive to the concerns of parents and students and the impact of the increase student-loan problem on our economy.  Leaving this decision to the unelected members of the governing boards will result in increasing growth in tuition and those boards are concerned primarily with their institution and not with the financial well-being of the people or the health of the state’s economy.  The boards will continue to increase rates to compete with other schools without providing increased educational benefits to students.