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(Much) higher education: does tuition deregulation mean that UT and A&M cost too much? It's all a matter of degrees.

Article Excerpt
Growing up one of eight kids in a Houston family of modest means, I came to realize that an article of faith in our household decreed that all of us would graduate from college. And so we did: seven from the University of Texas and one from Sam Houston State University. The credit for our perfect record is attributable not only to my parents' esteem for education but also to the generosity of the State of Texas, which made it remarkably easy for students to finance their own education. Tuition was rock-bottom--$4 per semester hour, or $60 for a full-time class load in 1973, my freshman year--and I was able to work in a dormitory cafeteria, get low-interest loans and grants, and take ten years to pay off the debt. Without this help, I could never have gotten the kind of education I received at a major state university.

And so, two years ago, I watched with more than casual interest when the Legislature conferred the ability to raise tuition rates upon the various boards of regents for all state schools. Since then, in rapid succession, the UT regents have hiked tuition from $92 per semester hour ($1,380 for the standard load of fifteen hours) to $142 per semester hour. Similar increases have occurred at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and the University of Houston, sending parents and students scrambling for part-time jobs, loans, and grants. Throw in fee increases, and the annual bill for the average UT student has risen to $6,786 for fourteen hours.

Students from wealthy families will still find UT and Texas A&M to be a bargain, and those from poor families can expect to receive financial aid. The big losers in tuition deregulation...

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