Texas has the funds to keep college debt down
When I served as president of Sul Ross State University in far West Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned a lot by listening to parents. One mom gave me an earful. She told me she’d have to spend money she didn’t have on new clothes after our school threw out clothing her son had left too long in a residence hall dryer.
I quickly figured out how to help — and scrapped the draconian policy of trashing clothes that were left overnight in dryers.
I also realized this issue was bigger than one family or one bureaucratic rule. It was a wake-up call regarding how easy it is for students and families to rack up debt — expected or unexpected, large or small — as they navigate college expenses to pursue a life-changing degree. It was a reminder that higher education leaders, from college campuses to state capitols, must actively work to keep that debt low.
For inspiration, they can look within our borders at innovative things our college and university presidents and chancellors are doing. And they can look at our neighbor to the west, New Mexico, to see a great example of what other states have done.
The student debt problem is real. As of 2020, a little over half of Texas students graduated from public colleges and universities with an average of nearly $27,000 of debt. Texans who started but never finished college owed more than $14,000 on average.
Unfortunately, some solutions have become politicized. President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness package exposed a partisan divide on the issue last year and was greeted with skepticism by some Supreme Court justices at a recent hearing.
But other solutions don’t need to be — and shouldn’t be — partisan or controversial.
On college campuses, keeping debt down starts with commonsense policies like those I implemented at Sul Ross. Those changes ranged from reducing needless costs — like in the laundry room — to helping students graduate faster, so they owe less.
The COVID-19 pandemic inspired many schools to maintain hybrid learning models as the new normal. This helps students who work full-time or care for family members attend classes more regularly and earn degrees more quickly.
Across our state’s university systems, regents and chancellors are also doing their part through expansive scholarship programs. The UT System’s $300 million Promise Plus endowment, for example, underwrites no-cost tuition for thousands of students at seven institutions around the state.
And last year, the state updated its Higher Education plan to call for 95 percent of students to graduate with manageable levels of debt or no debt at all.
Unfortunately, the state’s “College for All Texans” website also tells students who want information about the TEXAS Grants financial aid programs that “funding is limited … all eligible students may not receive funding.”
It’s time to change that.
It’s time for the Legislature to tie together all of the efforts at the campus, university system and state level and use their budget surplus to provide full tuition for Texans with need.
Students in New Mexico, a short drive from my far West Texas home, already pursue college and career training tuition-free via the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarships.
Those scholarships were launched with a $75 million investment last year to cover tuition and fees for certificates, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees. About 45,000 students have received them so far.
Texas has the money this year to adopt the same approach, now and into the future.
University presidents and chancellors are working to keep college costs low. Our state has set aspirational goals to keep costs low. And limited grant programs are in place to keep costs low.
Let’s take the cue from New Mexico and go one giant step further so that college remains a pathway to a better life for our students — not a gateway to financial debt. No investment matters more than an investment in our children and their future.
Pete Gallego of Alpine represented far West Texas in the Texas House (1991-2013) and Congress (20132015) and also served as president of Sul Ross State University, which has campuses in Alpine, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Uvalde.