Special ed boost eyed

The Texas Education Agency has suggested spending $126.8 million more on a corrective action plan for special education than first recommended.

A skeptical political climate hasn’t stopped Texas colleges from raising costs.

The University of Texas became the latest state system to boost tuition on Monday, as regents approved increases including a 2 percent hike at the University of Texas at Austin and higher surges elsewhere. Regents at the University of Houston System voted to increase tuition by more than 3 percent earlier this month, and the Texas A&M University System did so in the fall.

Universities argue that tuition increases are necessary because the state’s financial support for their operations on a per-student basis has declined since 2000. The additional tuition revenue, they say, will help finance everything from career placement offices and campus infrastructure to financial aid and student advising. At UT, Texas A&M and UH, increases saw little pushback from regents, who are appointed by the governor.

But some politicians have soured to cost increases as public scrutiny toward higher education has grown. An August poll from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found that about half of respondents said a degree was not worth the costs “because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.”

Last legislative session, the

Texas Senate passed a bill that would have frozen tuition for two years. After that, campuses would have had to meet certain performance measures before they could raise tuition — at most 1 percent above the rate of inflation. Performance criteria included the number of undergraduate degrees distributed and four- and six-year graduation rates. That bill died in a House committee, but it and others attempting to limit college costs saw backlash from universities, whose administrators argued that the legislation would block Texas campuses from competing nationwide for top faculty and students.

Analysts characterize the clash between growing costs and political pressure as intense, especially in states like Texas with conservative lawmakers.

“Demand for higher education is not growing like it used to,” said Richard Vedder, an emeritus economics professor at Ohio University who has directed OU’s affordability center. “I think the universities are slow to realize that fundamental changes are going on in American society … The tension has started to grow.”

On Monday, UT regents approved the tuition increase unanimously. Steven Leslie, UT’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, presented the increases and said students would not be hurt by them.

At UT-Austin, base tuition next fall will be $5,056, $99 more than fall 2017, with an additional $101 increase set for fall 2019. At the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, base tuition for the fall semester will go up about $300 for the next two years. Percent tuition increases for in-state undergraduates ranged from 0.1 percent at the University of Texas at San Antonio to 8.5 percent at UT Permian Basin.

‘At what point is it enough?’

UT-Austin President Greg Fenves — who announced the proposal in December — acknowledged in a letter to campus Monday that students and families would be affected and pledged to expand financial aid.

No UH regent voted against the tuition increase for undergraduates earlier this month. UH’s 3.5percent increase, officials said, was in line with proposed increases from Texas Tech University and Texas State University.

UH-Clear Lake and-UH-Victoria increased tuition 4.5 percent for undergraduates. For UH-Downtown, the increase was 4.3 percent.

UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator said the university considered “very carefully” whether the increase would be prohibitive to current students.

“Affordability has always been a very good part of our mission,” Khator said. “We’ll try to help students out in affordability as much as we can.”

One A&M regent — Tony Buzbee — voted against the 3.7 percent tuition increase in October.

“At what point do we stop? At what point is it enough?” he asked at A&M’s meeting.

He said in an interview Monday he is not concerned that lawmakers believe A&M — or any other Texas public university — offers insufficient value.

Instead, he said, his concern is for students and parents.

“I always believe we can find the money there to do what we need to do,” he said. “I think we can do more with less.”

Texas Southern University spokeswoman Melinda Spaulding said there is no scheduled tuition increase for next fall.

Rice University expects to announce tuition for fall 2018 later in March, spokesman B.J. Almond said. Several aspects of the university’s strategic plan, released last month, address college costs and the importance of keeping a college degree attainable.

The total cost of attendance at Rice rose 3.1 percent year over year to $59,458.

Reining in costs and debt

Until 2003, state lawmakers had the power to set Texas public universities’ tuition. That year, legislators gave university regents the ability to increase tuition themselves, with the agreement that a percentage of any tuition increase would finance financial aid. Average tuition at Texas’ four-year universities has more than doubled since then.

Universities have made some additional efforts to rein in costs. UH, for example, allows students who stay on track to graduate in four years to lock in tuition when they start as freshmen, keeping them immune from increases. And at Monday’s board meeting, UT’s board voted in a new requirement: the chancellor must annually report how revenue from tuition and fee increases is used.

Tuition and fees at four-year Texas public universities are about at the nationwide average, according to the College Board.

Still, campuses are not communicating the value of their degrees well, said Mark Schneider, vice president and institute fellow at the nonpartisan American Institutes for Research. “Higher education is still one of the most important investments a student can make.”

Texas students in the Class of 2016 took on an average of $26,292 in debt, according to the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit advocacy organization. That figure, including graduates from public and private nonprofit four-year colleges, ranked Texas 38th in average debt load.

Universities must show that students are learning needed workplace skills and will be able to pay off debt, Schneider said.

Students’ protests, particularly those that imply they do not respect dissenting political views, may also make tuition increases tough to swallow in conservative areas, he said.